Question Everything Concerning Your Health
I got my weekly Zen Habits e-note yesterday. The topic? Finally, The Truth About Soy. The blogger had gotten some negative reactions from folks when he mentioned drinking soy milk, so he decided to investigate Soy himself.
In it, the blogger talked about how he found no scientific evidence linking soy with any harm and traced the soy danger rumors back to the Weston A. Price Foundation (Dr. Mercola is a board member). “They are not scientists, and have conducted no actual peer-reviewed studies of their own (that I know about).” He says they use quack science to promote their agenda and most people cannot distinguish between good and bad science.
Folks with ideas outside the science status quo often get labeled as quacks. Dr. Mercola’s been talking about the dangers of cell phone use for years. I stumbled on his site six years ago in my quest to get information on Vitamin D. He was an early proponent of that as well.
As for soy, I try to steer clear of it. Does it cause direct human harm? I’m not 100% sure, but all the soy they grow causes biodiversity harm and that harms humans. We have 25% of the vegetables our ancestors had 100 years ago and they didn’t douse their foods with pesticides. (Pesticides came onto the food scene after WW2 around the time the big chemical companies needed a new market for their no-longer needed war chemicals.)
Today, big agri practices monocropping. Instead of rotating the crops to keep the soil alive, they grow one crop over and over — mainly corn, soy and rice — because it’s more lucrative. These nutrient-deficient crops attract pests that conveniently need to be killed with pesticides, they deplete the soil of nutrients rendering it dead, they squeeze out small, local farms and they may be the source of today’s explosion in food allergies and other illnesses.
Nature does not like monocropping.
But back to the quack label. I’m going to question the notion that only scientists have the expertise to tell us what’s good and bad for us and that a peer-review study reveals the real truth.
Cell Phones: I never did any “peer review studies” but had a funny feeling in my gut when cell phones came out. Putting something getting signals from a tower next to my brain didn’t seem like a smart thing to do, so I never did. I used it only for quick conversations every few days and on speaker phone. For years, the “scientific” studies kept saying that people got brain cancers on the side of the head that held the phone but it didn’t cause cancer. Yesterday the World Health Organization reversed engines and now suspects cell phones might cause cancer.
I wonder how long they’ve been wondering this?
Other issues I’ve researched myself without peer review studies:
Fluoride. No peer-review studies exist to say it’s safe or it isn’t safe. But you can easily discover that fluoride was one of the key ingredients needed to make the Atomic Bomb. It’s an extremely unstable element. And many of the folks that handled it in the top secret Manhattan Bomb locations died of cancer. Check out The Fluoride Deception. Ask most folks where it comes from and they can’t tell you. The industrial grade fluoride they dump into our drinking water – hydrofluorisilic acid – is caught inside the pollution scrubbers at superphosphate fertilizer plants. The kind of place you roll the window up when you drive by. (Otherwise it would need to go to a hazardous waste facility.) Now, more and more kids exhibit irreversible dental fluorosis and need cosmetic dentistry and who knows what else. If this stuff attacks our teeth, what else is it attacking?
Calcium: When my doctor said I should be ingesting 1200 mg of calcium a day, I questioned it. “So, women of all different weights would take the same amount?” That didn’t make sense to me. So, I did more “peer-unreviewed study” and discovered they use calcium to harden cement and again wondered how it would only land in the bones. It turns out it doesn’t. Older women who’ve been ingested lots of calcium may run into heart problems. In addition, I couldn’t seem to find any studies that support a finding of stronger bones taking it. (By the way, the times I did try it, it caused major stomach distress.)
And I could continue with my research on bone density testing, X-rays, and high cholesterol, but this post would be too long. Do you do your own health research and have you found anything you want to share with us? Many thanks for reading! G.
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I wonder about these issues a lot. My toddler is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts– how does that even happen? So he drinks organic soy milk… I tried to make an informed decision… soy milk or rice milk? I try to be healthy but admittedly pick and choose. Your post is spot on… I think we know our bodies and it’s important to be informed and not just hand our health over to a study.
Hi Angie,
I’m convinced that the move from local to global food production facilities has a lot to do with the spike in food-related allergies. Everything we eat has soy or corn in it. And the animals are fed grain/corn instead of grass and it makes them sick. Then they give them antibiotics. So anyone who is a meat eater is eating sick animals.
Thank you for the comment! G.
Love this post Giuletta!
I was fortunate when in my teens a Dr. gave me sedatives for poor digestion. When I called him a day later and through slurred words told him I didn’t feel good he told me, in what I thought was a scared voice, that I better throw the pills in the toilet. I did and I’ve been questioning ever since.
RE: the blogger you mention – arguing pro and con or putting mud slinging links against well intentioned foundations is no argument for what is right for any individual.
A person has to let their own body speak to them and do the due diligence. If we don’t listen we can possibly get into all kinds of trouble when our body finally rebels against certain things.
I mostly choose whole foods from local farmers who use sustainable farming practices. It works for us! At an “advanced age” I have 0 risk of osteoporosis and I never took a calcium pill. I get my calcium from green leafy veggies, etc. I don’t subscribe to any certain “diet” and I include all food groups in my choices for our meals.
Thanks so much for bringing this up. I hope to hear more from you on this subject. I like your style of questioning everything concerning your health!
catherine
Love the name Purple Kangaroos!
Yes! Let our own bodies speak to us. I agree that is the real “evidence” we need to pay attention to. Until I started shopping at Whole Foods about 10 years ago, I didn’t even know vegetables besides corn, peas, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli and iceberg lettuce existed! Now, that I belong to a CSA, I’m eating all sorts of diverse veggies. Reading all sorts of eye opening books about what’s good for our bodies, not what’s good for corporate farms. It makes no sense to skimp on what you put in your body. Thank you so much for piping in! G.
thank you for the information Giulietta:)
i decided to give up soda few months ago, i know everyone knows its not a healthy food and that’s why i did
Thanks for visiting the blog Farouk! I try to skip the soda as well. It’s hard because I love ginger ale. The sugar they pump into our food is astounding. Think the average person ingests something like 200 pounds of sugar per year. Around the turn of the century it was ten. Glad you could kick it!
I’m not convinced kids have hyperactivity diseases that need drugs to treat. They’re just ingesting all this sugar and don’t have opportunities to play, so it’s a double energy whammy.
G.
Giulietta, As usual, I have to agree with you. Before you brought up the fluoride and calcium issues, I’d never given them much thought. The same goes for soy. As for cell phones, I avoided them for years. Currently, for reasons beyond my control, I’m stuck with one and I hate using it! So, like you, maybe every four days. Don’t want to fry my brain.
How did generations before us live hale and hearty lives? (Both my grandmothers and two aunts died in their 90s after living healthy lives. Even the males lived between 80+ good years. My father never had a sick day in his life despite seeing action in two wars. My diabetic father-in-law, who smoked and drank but lived on a farm, passed on at 94.) They didn’t put all that “stuff” into their bodies, and mostly lived off the land and not the artificially produced foods of today.
I was brought up in a time of deprivation – post WWII in England so I didn’t acquire any soda or junk food habits. Then I lived in Mexico – a country where I bought only fresh veg, meats, and dairy products. I knew little about most allergies until I came here and encountered a startling array that I’d never heard of. How come they have risen so sharply in the past 50 years in the U.S.? Stuff they put in food, the pharmaceutical industry, and/or psychosomatic suggestion? I’d love to know the results of international symposiums on allergies. I bet that in many other countries, they’re almost nonexistent.
You mentioned sugar in your last comment. Again, things are happening to children that never happened to ones in my or my kids’ generations. I’m horrified that doctors and parents are prescribing drugs for kids when, as you say, sugar is probably a primary factor. I love sweet things but again thanks to my upbringing, I’m careful. No caloric sodas and in moderation, I’ve found that you can have your cake and eat it too.
Hi Penelope,
Allergies may be traceable to global food processing. peanuts, etc. manages to get into everything at this huge processing plants.
A lot of what passes for preventative health care really means drugging and testing folks. You’re not sick — yet — so take this drug and it will ensure you never get sick. Even though pills are chemical poisons. Just yesterday I read that Acetaminophen may cause cancer.
For me, I see pills to be used in way less than moderation and only in life threatening situations.
The problem with health care the way it’s set up is that it encourages folks to get tested and take drugs. And lawyers who sue doctors for wrongful practice, create doctors who over-test and over-prescribe to cover their asses.
A lot of these medical tests cause cancer. I’m concerned about all the young children who’ve had CT brain scans. Each one is about 400 chest x-rays.
In addition, because the medical industry continues to boom, folks get pushed into unnecessary testing to ensure the boom continues.
Appreciate the comment! G.
Wonderful, wonderful post full of great information. I never listen to any of the “what is good for you and what isn’t good for you.”
I did take something for a while for my cholesterol and bones. My legs started to feel weak and my one arm started hurting. threw that stuff out and had to sign a paper from the doctor that I was refusing to take the drugs.
As for farms in rotating the crops. yes, i grew up on a farm and that is just what they do.
To me when they say this good and that is good or something isn’t good is people wanting to sell there goods by lying to us.
Sun screen is another that I just don’t go alone with. No we don’t need sun burn and need a little protection, but we also need the vitamins from the sun.
Ok, i could go on and on but I’ll stop here. Thank you again for speaking up when it comes to what is or isn’t good for us.
Blessing to you,
Debbie
I do not listen to all this stuff and let my body tell me what I need.
Hi Debbie,
Yes, a lot of lies to sell meds.
Glad you brought up sunscreen. The oxybenzone chemical used in many products may cause harm to humans. As they say, if you can’t eat it don’t put it on your skin. I try to use a wide-brimmed hat whenever possible and go out for 15-20 minutes on sunny days to get some vit D on my body.
And thank you for bringing up the meds for osteoporosis. Now, that’s scary stuff. It’s been found to cause a bunch of horrors when the woman probably never had osteoporosis to begin with. Bone density tests cannot tell you that. They just compare your bones to someone else’s. If you are small boned, then you’ll have a lower density. Yet, your bones may be stronger than someone with a higher density.
Thrilled your body made you get off it! Thank you for this info. G.
Giuletta, this is such an important post! You bring up some really good examples and it makes me value my more natural lifestyle here in the Andes. Funny story about my cell phone — I rarely use it anyway, but when I want to use it, it only works with the speaker, so I’m glad to say that I almost never have it by my ear! =)
I’m also really wary about pesticides, which makes me ecstatic that I can often buy food directly from the farmers at the marketplaces here in the Central Andes! =) There are some people I love to buy from who I’m friends with, so we can actually talk about what they do on their farms less than an hour away. =) Not sure if you knew, but the Mantaro Valley where I live is famous for potatoes. =)
Welcome Samantha!
I’m going to research the Mantaro Valley. It sounds exquisite! May have mentioned on your blog that I have wanted to visit Peru for a long time. I painted a Peruvian baby from a photo one of my friends took when she visited – vibrant colors everywhere! Will try and post it along with some of my other paintings. Everyone that sees the painting wants to buy it, but it’s not for sale at the moment.
Obtaining food from folks who can tell you what they put on it makes a huge health difference. Also, eating food picked ripe versus picked upripe and shipped 3000 miles also impacts our health. Fortunately, even around here local farms are cropping up again.
I will be talking about corporate animal farms at some point down the road. Wonderful to connect with you. Thanks for the comment, G.
Hey Giulietta,
Thanks for putting together these watch-outs! I’m passionate about healthy living and I’m like a sponge for information like this 🙂
Hi Susane,
We need more people sponging up this kind of information! thx. G.
Soy is one of the three main GM crops here in the United States, the other two being corn and canola.
Welcome Todd! Glad you brought up genetically modified. Yet, another frightening era in our food consumption. Will read your Monsanto post. Have you seen Food Inc.? If you go to the Monsanto site, they answer “questions” regarding the movie.
Thx, G.