FDA has known processed meat causes cancer since the 1970s, but continues to cover up truth to protect meat industry

They're added to nearly every processed meat product sold in the U.S. today – nitrites and other synthetic curing chemicals that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says are safe to use for keeping meat products from spoiling too quickly. But an investigation by researchers from the University of Wisconsin has uncovered that, despite years of denial, the FDA has known since at least the 1970s that nitrites cause cancer, and yet continues to pander to the meat industry in allowing their use.

Meat curing has been around forever, with the historical record showing that this process allowed ancient cultures to preserve meats for extended periods of time, especially during periods of food scarcity. People didn't have refrigerators back then, remember, so they had to come up with novel ways of food preservation that would get them through harsh weather conditions and other volatile environmental factors.

The fact that people have been curing meats since time immemorial isn't necessarily a problem. Salt, after all, is a natural curing agent that, in and of itself, isn't harmful. It's when salt is transformed through synthetic chemical alterations – in this case, as nitrites – that it becomes harmful. And these same nitrites, according to independent scientists, have been the subject of intense debate over the years concerning their safety.

Sodium nitrite linked to leukemia, cancer

Sodium nitrite, one of the most popular curing chemicals found in processed meat products today, contains certain nitroso compounds that, under the right conditions, can transform into cancer-causing nitrosamines. Even at the time when sodium nitrite was first offered up for commercial approval in the 1970s, it was recognized that nitrosamines come with serious health risks, including the threat of leukemia and other forms of cancer.

The debate over whether or not to approve sodium nitrite in the 1970s was centered around the chemical's known carcinogenicity, and the fact that other, safer curing compounds were already readily available. Nitrite opponents did what they could to present sound science that highlighted all this, which they believed would win the FDA over in rejecting sodium nitrite in favor of safer alternatives.

But the FDA ultimately capitulated to the meat lobby, which saw dollar signs rather than people's health as being the priority. Synthetic nitrites, after all, are cheap to produce, they preserve the inherent color and flavor of meats, and most people don't even know they're there – unless, of course, they develop a serious health condition as a result of consuming them.

Naturally-occurring nitrites aren't harmful

Not to be confused with naturally-occurring nitrites, which aid in the body's normal regulation of blood pressure, immune response and more, synthetic nitrites have an almost opposite effect on the body, damaging the normal function of hemoglobin and possibly even causing brain damage, particularly in young people.

"Nitrite changes the normal function of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood to the rest of the body, into a form called methemoglobin that cannot carry oxygen," explains the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Sciences.

"In severe, untreated cases, brain damage and eventually death can result from suffocation due to lack of oxygen."

Dietary nitrites, on the other hand, offer many protective benefits, including their ability to spur production of nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide helps regulate blood pressure, boost immunity, aid in wound repair, and improve neurological function, among other benefits.

"[T]he normal production of nitric oxide and nitrite may prevent various types of cardiovascular disease including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and stroke," explains the University of Wisconsin report.

This is why purchasing only nitrite-free meats, or meats that contain only naturally-occurring nitrites from vegetables like celery, is critical for your long-term health. Reading food labels and making smart purchasing decisions will go a long way in protecting you and your family against cancer and other forms of chronic illness.

Sources for this article include:

MapleLeafFoods.com

DES.NH.gov

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052531_sodium_nitrite_cured_meats_FDA_cover-up.html#ixzz3weE3Uu97

Obama launches 'secret' new immigration scheme

In the final hours of 2015 the Obama administration has quietly proposed a host of rule changes that critics say will end up being a bonanza for foreign students and illegal immigrants seeking work in the U.S. while putting a dagger in the hearts of thousands of American workers.

The rules, as proposed by Obama’s Department of Homeland Security, make it easier for employers to hire and retain foreign workers who have not yet received their green cards or “lawful protected resident” status.
The U.S. already hands out approximately 1 million green cards per year, but under the proposed changes those foreigners who apply unsuccessfully for a green card can enter the workforce with a temporary work permit.
The proposed changes, all 181 pages of them, showed up in the Federal Register on New Year’s Eve. They would ease regulations that govern the way work permits are handed out to foreign nationals, including some who enter the U.S. illegally or who come on visas that would not allow them to work.
One of the most pernicious of these new rules, according to immigration-watchdog groups, is the treatment of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. seeking asylum.
Buried on Page 113 of the document is a provision that says, “Aliens who have properly filed applications for asylum or withholding of deportation or removal” will automatically be eligible to receive a work permit.
Anyone in the U.S. illegally who has filed an application for a suspension of deportation would be allowed to work legally under these new rules.
“Someone could just show up at the border, file for asylum, and get a work permit – without even having to meet asylum criteria,” said one congressional aide on Capitol Hill.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/obama-launches-secret-new-immigration-scheme/#cR2XWQduxtarXcwZ.99

ISIS: The ‘Enemy’ the US Created, Armed, and Funded

(MINTPRESS) Out of nowhere, it seems, Daesh, also commonly referred to as ISIL or ISIS, spontaneously formed, a group that perverts aspects of Islam for its own violent ends, and threatens, we are told, all that the civilized world holds dear.
The “war on terror,” governments inform their citizens, has a new front. And that front is Daesh.

Let us not be too hasty. Things are not always what they appear. Daesh is well-financed, and that money must be coming from somewhere other than a ragtag band of malcontents. Daesh soldiers have advanced weaponry and sophisticated communications methods. They have tanks and Humvees. None of these can be obtained without significant funding. Though the source is quite illusive, there is some evidence that will lead to a trail.
First, we must look at Daesh’s origins, and even that is not easily discernible. Writing for The Guardian in August 2014, Ali Khedery suggests:
“Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams. Isis’s rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad’s Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him.
Facing Assad’s army and intelligence services, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Shia Islamist militias and their grand patron, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Syria’s initially peaceful protesters quickly became disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised – and then radicalised and violently militant.”
It is interesting that Mr. Khedery says that Assad’s “embrace of al-Qaida” came back to haunt him. It brings to mind a parallel situation in the United States. (Actually, there are many, but we will look at only one.)

Examining the theories of the origins of Daesh

In the early 1960s, when the U.S.-supported leadership of Iraq was becoming just a bit too big for its britches — at least in the United States’ view — in wanting to challenge Israel as a major player in the Middle East, the U.S. decided that its leader, Abdel Karim Kassem, had to go. Selecting a virulent anti-communist party to throw its support to, the U.S. worked closely with a young man named Saddam Hussein. We all know how well that ultimately worked out. The source of much, but not all, of the unrest in the Middle East today can be traced back to that U.S. decision.
Other theories on the formation of Daesh are also worth considering. Yasmina Haifi, a senior employee of the Dutch Justice Ministry’s National Cyber Security Center, asserted that Daesh was created by Zionists seeking to give Islam a bad reputation. “ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. It’s part of a plan by Zionists who are deliberately trying to blacken Islam’s name,” she wrote on Twitter in August 2014.

Read more: http://theantimedia.org/isis-the-enemy-the-us-created-armed-and-funded/

Robocop created, it's called TeleBot

The late 1980s sci-fi flick RoboCop featured a half-man, half-robotic creature that was deployed to the mean, decaying streets of Detroit in a bid to replace human police officers (and save money).

In an early scene, a full robot was being demonstrated by its corporate developers, but wound up short-circuiting and blowing away one of the executives when it malfunctioned. The fix? Just tweak some software programming and that would do it.

The thought of robotic police officers patrolling the streets of America did not vanish with the fading popularity of the RoboCop movie series, however. In fact, that concept is alive and well today, and its development is moving forward.

Meet "TeleBot," created by researchers from Florida International University (FIU) "to help disabled officers and veterans return to the field," the Miami New Times (MNT) reported.

Built by FIU's Discovery Lab, the university claims that TeleBot will be the first "functional, mobile... and interactive" robot that could be patrolling the streets of Miami in less than two years.

"Incredibly fast and very low-budget"

But rather than resemble RoboCop, its developers say TeleBot is more like the characters in the movie Avatar.

"In Avatar, the disabled veteran got injured in the back, so he can't walk, and he rebounds by connecting to a system," Janghoon Kim, director of Discovery Lab and chief designer of TeleBot, told MNT. "We want to build that kind of system."

Kim's team has been successful in a number of realms. First, the prototype TeleBot was up and walking within 18 months, a huge feat in and of itself. But the team also developed the cop aide with a budget of just $20,000.

As MNT further reported, the project was truly a team effort:

Besides Kim, the project has been undertaken by Dr. Nagarajan Prabakar and Dr. S.S. Iyengar, as well as 11 volunteer undergrad students and one intern from MAST Academy High School. External support has come from U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeremy Robins and 3D designer and lab manager Mangai Prabakar.

"It is incredibly fast and also very, very low-budget," said Kim.

TeleBot is about six feet tall, weighs 80 pounds and is equipped with cameras that collect and transmit data, so it can provide its "TeleOperator" a 360-degree view.

And the goal is admirable -- providing a tool for helping disabled police officers and veterans who want to be police officers.

Robots are also being developed by the military to perform all sorts of functions, from sniffing out and disabling roadside bombs to replacing troops on the battlefield.

The Pentagon's ultra-secret Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has thus far spent decades researching and developing battlefield-type drones and robots, but with limited success. As noted by RoboHub, DARPA has funded several projects along these lines, "but they lack the portable power source and intelligence that would allow them to act beyond very limited non-combat roles."

They will assume moral agency at some point

One approach has been the "cyborgazation" of soldiers -- that is, combine humans with robotic features that allow them to become super-strong and much more durable. And, some experts believe, similar technology could eventually be utilized by police (if budgets permit).

"This concept offers the best of both worlds: the quick reaction times, precision, and strength of robotic systems and the control and superior cognitive abilities of humans," reported RoboHub.

In particular, the Army has been working on a concept known as "Land Warrior," an integrated battlefield system that links individual soldiers to a network "designed to cut through the fog of war," Popular Mechanics reported.

The system includes eyepieces containing digital maps, advanced encrypted radio communications with a 1-kilometer range and a specially designed infantry rifle. But, as PopMech reported, it's much ado about nothing; the soldiers who have tested the system don't care much for it.

"It's just a bunch of stuff we don't use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns," Sgt. James Young, who was leading a team of four M-240 machine-gunners during a recent field-testing exercise at Fort Lewis, Wash. "It makes you a slower, heavier target."

But it's not the gear itself that is problematic. There is an ethical consideration that needs to be addressed as well, and soon.

As noted by The Economist, robots are already so much a part of everyday life, it only follows that someday they "are bound to end up making life-or-death decisions in unpredictable situations, thus assuming--or at least appearing to assume--moral agency."

Sources:

http://www.blacklistednews.com

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com

http://robohub.org

http://www.popularmechanics.com

http://www.economist.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052465_police_robots_military_technology_law_enforcement.html#ixzz3vvoSpUS7

How to make pemmican - a nutritious superfood for survival that lasts decades

It may come as a surprise to learn that the most nutritionally-complete food on the planet is not only easy to make at home, but can also be stored unrefrigerated for many years without spoiling.

Dubbed the "original MRE," or, "Meal, Ready-to-Eat," pemmican is a survival superfood that was developed by Native Americans many centuries ago. It contains everything the body needs to sustain itself in a healthy fashion for an extended period of time.

Pemmican consists primarily of powdered dried meat mixed in equal amounts with rendered animal fat. The early Americans used meats such as buffalo and elk; today, pemmican is typically made with beef. We suggest using grass-fed meat, as animals fed in this manner are raised significantly more humanely.

The Native Americans were also known to mix in a small amount of dried berries (around five percent -- by weight -- of the total ingredients).

Pemmican: Enjoyed by early settlers, still provides health benefits today

The Pemmican Manual, by Lex Rooker, contains a wealth of information on the subject, from the history of its use by early settlers to recipes for making pemmican at home.

"When pemmican was discovered by our early Frontiersmen (explorers, hunters, trappers, and the like) it became a highly sought after commodity. The Hudson Bay Company purchased tons of pemmican from the native tribes each year to satisfy the demand," Rooker explains. "The basic unit of trade was an animal hide filled with pemmican, sealed with pure rendered fat on the seams, and weighed about 90 pounds. As long as it was kept away from moisture, heat, and direct sunlight, it would last for many years with no refrigeration or other method of preservation."

Those frontiersmen knew a good thing when they saw it. Pemmican was ideal for travel and for stockpiling a source of highly-concentrated nutritious food during lean or cold periods.

The same considerations apply today. For surviving a SHTF scenario, you'll need portable, high-energy rations that can be stored indefinitely.

There are a few variations on the theme, but most recipes for pemmican follow the same basic methods.

How to make pemmican at home

First, you'll need to dehydrate your meat (and berries, if you want to add them. Keep in mind berries are prone to spoilage and may shorten the shelf life of the pemmican; it may be worth replacing them with another healthy item such as cinnamon). Use a food dehydrator or an oven at its lowest setting to slowly dry out these ingredients.

Rooker warns of being careful not to overheat the meat, saying that lean meat should be dehydrated below 120 degrees Fahrenheit, ideally staying between 100 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that are too high will cook the meat too much and take away from the nutritional value.

Once you've dried the meat, grind it into a powder and add in the dried berries, if desired.

Next, you must render the fat. You can use tallow (rendered from beef or mutton) or lard (from pork). When doing this on a stovetop, simply heat the ground fat by simmering and stirring occasionally. Then strain the liquid that ultimately forms into a mason jar using a cheesecloth or coffee filter.

Once the fat is rendered and strained, it can be mixed with the dried meat and shaped into balls or set into a mold. The trick is to not use too much fat or the pemmican may eventually turn rancid; add just enough to thoroughly moisten the mixture and bind everything together.

Why not try some variations on the theme?

Honey, which yields a similar shelf life, can be used in place of animal fat. Adding some spices, such as cumin with black pepper, may also be tasty addition to this recipe.

Long-lasting nutrition for active people, SHTF situations

As Rooker notes, pemmican is the perfect food for someone on the move. It's also ideal for possible SHTF scenarios.

"Ten pounds of pemmican will easily sustain a backpacker for a full week providing 1 ¹/₂ pounds of pemmican per day which would supply 4,400 calories -- enough to support strenuous climbing at high altitude and in cold weather." He adds, "The same 10 pounds of pemmican would supply food for two full weeks of leisure camping activities at ³/₄ pound per day providing 2,200 calories."

Sources for this article include:
http://tacticalintelligence.net
http://www.traditionaltx.us [PDF]
http://www.askaprepper.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052403_pemmican_superfood_recipe_nutritious_survival_food.html#ixzz3vEJxLYTY

New multi-toxin GMOs that produce their own poison carry 'serious health and environmental risks' scientific review finds

New strains of GM crops that produce pesticides in their own tissues are being approved without rigorous safety testing, even though they may carry "serious health and environmental risks," according to a research review conducted by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, and published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science on November 9.

The crops in question are engineered to carry pesticide-producing genes from the bacterial species Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). In recent years, companies have increasingly turned to crossbreeding different varieties of Bt crops, producing crops that now carry numerous different strains of Bt toxin at once. These "stacked-trait" crops are being approved for planting and sale, based on several false assertions made by the genetically modified (GM) crop industry, the study found.

Hiding toxic effects

One such assertion is that each individual Bt toxin affects only a small number of insect pests, and has no effects on other species such as beneficial insect predators ("non-target" species). But the researchers found numerous studies showing the opposite to be true.

According to lead researcher Angelika Hilbeck, companies hide the truth by defining non-target effects in a highly narrow fashion: a "quick kill."

"This is an economic concept: you want a quick kill for economic reasons, to save the crop from pest-induced damage," Hilbeck said. "But Bt toxins are not fast-acting toxins. Even in target pests, Bt toxins don't kill quickly – it takes most susceptible insects a day or more to die. The Bt toxin in GM crops is expressed in the crop plant for months at a time. Residues linger in soil and aquatic systems.

"Regulatory tests need to look at long-term and sublethal effects, because that is what non-target organisms are likely to be exposed to. Currently these tests are not required. Yet we found a lot of evidence in the scientific literature that non-target organisms such as ladybirds, water fleas, lacewings and even slugs are adversely affected by Bt toxins."

The review also turned up evidence that Bt toxins may have long-term, toxic effects in mammals – including, potentially, in humans who eat GM crops.

The uncertainty around the safety of stacked-trait Bt crops is only worsened, the researchers noted, by the fact that scientists do not even understand how Bt toxins function. The formerly accepted model has been widely discredited due to new research, and the revelation of scientific misconduct and data tampering by the researchers who first proposed it.

More dangerous than single pesticides

Another false industry claim is that use of Bt crops reduces pesticide use. But the review found that the total pesticide load in stacked-trait Bt crops often exceeded the typical amount of pesticide used in a non-GM field. For example, SmartStax GM corn contains six different Bt toxins and two herbicide tolerant traits. The total Bt toxin load in this crop is 19 times the average 2010 pesticide application rate!

Perhaps the most glaring regulatory failing uncovered by the review, is the acceptance of industry claims that stacked-trait crops should be approved on the basis of tests conducted on single-trait crops. Yet the review uncovered numerous studies showing that stacked-trait crops caused biological effects not produced by any of the individual toxins alone. The same thing occurred when Bt toxins were mixed with neonicotinoid insecticides, as commonly occurs in the field.

The review also found that industry dossiers seeking stacked-trait approval consistently failed to mention the studies that contradicted their false assumptions. Regulators did not require any further safety testing of stacked-trait crops, beyond a few short-term insect feeding trials.

Instead, the researchers said, regulators should require long-term mammal feeding trials, as a minimum.

Furthermore, Hilbeck said, "We have to extend the definition of 'effect' from the economic to the ecological."

Sources for this article include:

GMWatch.org

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052351_Stacked_trait_crops_Bt_GMOs.html#ixzz3upv3B1xb

American Cancer Society admits conventional cancer treatment causes more cancer

The more radiation therapy you receive, the more likely it is you'll develop a second cancer caused by that radiation, according to a document^[PDF] released by the American Cancer Society, which admits that certain organs such as the breast and thyroid are more prone to developing a second cancer.

This information is followed by a new study which found that second cancers in Americans have increased a whopping 300 percent since the 1970s, all of which are a completely new type of cancer and not a reoccurrence of an old cancer.

The study also found that first cancers have spiked 70 percent over the last 45 years, highlighting the burgeoning profitability of an industry that shows no signs of slowing down as capital gains from cancer drugs reached the $100 billion mark last year.

Radiation, which may damage DNA, is believed to be responsible for 1.5 percent of cancer in the United States, and that's not just from cancer therapy treatments but also from other sources of radiological imaging such as mammograms and coronary artery and CT scans, the latter of which delivers 100 to 500 times the radiation of an ordinary X-ray.

"For every 1,000 people undergoing a cardiac CT scan, the radiation adds one extra case of cancer to the 420 that would normally occur," according to The New York Times.

Children exposed to radiation much more likely to develop breast cancer

Children who have received radiation therapy as a cancer treatment are much more likely to develop breast cancer later on in life. Age at the time of radiation plays a factor as the "therapy" affects the development of other tumors including lung and thyroid cancer, gastrointestinal and stomach cancer and bone sarcoma.

If a patient receives chemotherapy and radiation, their risk for developing some type of second cancer soars even higher.

Chemotherapy is actually considered a greater risk factor in causing leukemia than radiation and has been linked to the following second cancers: myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, the most common) acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Testicular cancer has also been linked to chemotherapy treatment.

Chemotherapy increases the risk of developing hard-to-treat leukemia

The alkylating agents in chemo drugs are to blame, as they interfere with cellular DNA, sometimes causing the development of AML and MDS, which may then progress to ALL.

Some alkylating agents known to cause cancer include:

• mechlorethamine
• chlorambucil
• cyclophosphamide (cytoxan)
• melphalan,
• lomustine (CCNU)
• carmustine (BCNU)
• busulfan

The longer you receive treatment involving alkylating agents, as well as the higher the dose, the more likely you are to develop a second cancer, with the risk for leukemia rising about two years following treatment and peaking between five and ten years, after which the risk reportedly dwindles.

Second cancers caused by chemo drugs are "hard to treat and have a poor outcome"

Though not as risky, other chemotherapy drugs can also cause second cancers. Chemo drugs cisplatin and carboplatin act similarity to alkylating agents in the way they attack cancer cells, in turn also increasing certain types of leukemia that are difficult to treat and often have a poor outcome.

If cisplatin or carboplatin are given in combination with radiation, the risk for developing leukemia rises.

Topoisomerase II inhibitors, a class of chemo drugs that inhibit cells from being able to repair DNA, also contribute to the risk of developing leukemia, particularly AML, which develops much sooner (within two to three years) after treatment compared with alkylating agents.

Drugs in this class include:

• Etoposide (VP-16)
• Teniposide
• Mitoxantrone (Novantrone)

Another class of chemo drugs called anthracyclines, which are also topoisomerase II inhibitors, cause leukemia as well but aren't as risky as the other drugs mentioned.

These include:

• Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)
• Daunorubicin
• Epirubicin (Ellence)
• Idarubicin

Sources:

MSN.com

Cancer.org^[PDF]

Well.Blogs.NYTimes.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/052316_recurring_cancers_conventional_cancer_treatments_American_Society.html#ixzz3uTxSqowh