The Ominous Beef Cover Up:

The Hidden Truth Behind the Meat on Your Plate
Posted by Dr. Mercola | March 23 2010

Of all the animals that humans eat, none are held more responsible for climate change than cows. Cows not only consume more energy-intensive feed than other livestock, they also produce more methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

But grass-fed cows may have the opposite effect.

Grass is a perennial. If cattle and other ruminants are rotated across pastures full of it, the animals' grazing will cut the blades, spurring new growth, while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Currently, 99 percent of U.S. beef cattle live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, and transportation.

Even though grass-fed cattle produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.
Sources:
Time Magazine January 25, 2010



Dr. Mercola's Comments:


Although this Time magazine article goes into some of the details about how cows may be partly responsible for global warming, I think the MAIN point here is the very real difference between conventionally-raised, grain-fed livestock, and organically-raised, grass-fed cows as it pertains to both your health, and the health of the planet as a whole.

The differences between the two are so vast; you’re really talking about two different animals, and two separate industries with entirely different farming practices and environmental impact.

As reported in Time magazine above, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a report in 2006 entitled Livestock’s Role in Climate Change and Air Pollution. In it, they estimate that 18 percent of the world’s man-made greenhouse-gas emissions are produced by livestock. This information was heralded by vegetarians and environmentalists alike as proof that eating meat was bad not only for you, but for the entire planet.

But, it’s important to realize that this detrimental effect comes from modern farming practices, not from cows being raised naturally as they were designed to be

The carbon footprint of conventional farming is mainly due to the unnatural feed that these animals are given, which requires lots of fossil fuels. Many don’t think about this, but fossil fuels are used in everything from the fertilizers and pesticides that are sprayed onto the crop to the transportation of the feed.

Grass does not require fossil fuels to grow (rotating pastures does the job instead), and other health harming practices, such as injecting the livestock with hormones and antibiotics, are also not allowed in organic farming.

This equates to healthier meat, a healthier you, and benefits to the planet.

Courtesy: Dr. Mercola's Newsletter

8 Easy Heart-Saving Diet Tricks

The healthcare issue dominates the news, and no one knows the outcome. With all the controversy surrounding the government's plans, it only makes sense for you to take charge of your own health.

Protecting your heart should be one of your major objectives. For a detailed discussion of how to take charge of your health in the wake of government-controlled healthcare, see my newsletter "Use Prevention to Take Control of Your Healthcare."

People with heart disease, including chronic heart failure, arrhythmias and angina, often end up in the emergency room or hospital because of complications associated with these disorders.

Cardiologists have noticed that simple nutritional changes and the use of supplements can prevent many such visits.

Most studies on the nutritional treatment of heart failure concentrated only on one supplement. Even then, there was no control of diet or other known behaviors that increase risk. So, the first step is to follow a healthy diet.


Follow these simple nutritional changes to protect your heart:

• Eat five to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (mainly high-nutrient dense vegetables, such as broccoli, greens, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and kale).

• Avoid excess sugar.

• Drink purified water or white tea.

• Increase the intake of good fats (DHA) and avoid bad fats (omega-6 fats).

• Avoid seafood high in mercury. Studies have shown that people with heart failure have heart mercury levels far higher than normal. For more information on buying and eating fish, read my special report "Eating Fish: What You Need to Know."


Supplements are also part of a heart-healthy regime. They include:

• Acetyl-L-carnitine or L-carnitine. This nutrient strengthens the heart muscle, reduces free radical damage, lowers tissue iron levels, and reduces insulin resistance.

• Hawthorn. Hawthorn lowers blood pressure and strengthens the contraction of heart muscles.

• CoQ10. CoQ10 is a major energy molecule for the heart, and statin drugs that lower cholesterol can severely reduce levels of CoQ10.


Many other supplements also help keep your heart — as well as the rest of your body —healthy. For more information, read my special report "Key Vitamins That Save Your Heart, Prevent Cancer and Keep You Living Long."

Courtesy: Dr.Russell Blaylock, M.D./ NewszMax Health Newsletter

Drink Red Wine to Stay Slim

Women who drink a couple of glasses of red wine, beer, or spirits a day are better at keeping the pounds off than women who do not drink at all, according to a study published Monday.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston asked more than 19,000, normal-weight U.S. women aged 39 or older how many alcoholic beverages they typically drank in a day, and then tracked the women for around 13 years.

The largest single group — 7,346 women or just over 38 percent — said they didn't drink a drop, according to the study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the American Medical Association.

The second biggest group — 6,312 women or nearly a third of those surveyed — reported drinking the equivalent of around a third of a five-ounce glass of wine or a third of a 12-ounce beer. They did not explain how they managed to do so.

Twenty percent of the women said they drank the equivalent of up to a glass of wine, a 12-ounce beer, or a single-shot drink made with 80-proof spirits, while six percent said they had up to two drinks a day and three percent had more than two.

Over the 13-year follow-up period, the women who did not drink at all gained the most weight, and the women who had the equivalent of two drinks a day were the least likely to pack on pounds.

The best drink for keeping the pounds off was red wine, but all four types of tipple included in the study — red or white wine, beer, and spirits — showed the same "inverse association between alcohol intake and risk of becoming overweight or obese," the study found.

The authors cautioned, however, against making recommendations on alcohol use as a tool against obesity, given the potential medical and psycho-social problems associated with drinking.

The women's alcohol intake was recorded in grams of alcohol.

A five-ounce (150 ml) glass of wine, 12-ounce beer or one mixed drink made with a single, 1.5-ounce shot of 80-proof alcohol all contain around 14 grams of pure alcohol and are considered "standard drink sizes" in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Courtesy: Newsmax.com

Melting Belly Fat (Concl.)

The Belly Fat Cure is similar to the Atkins or South Beach diet with the addition of a carb-swap system.

Each day, dieters take in no more than 15 grams of sugar from six servings of "smart," fiber-rich carbs (one serving of carbs equals 5-20 grams of carbohydrate). You calculate the sugar/carb value by comparing the grams of sugar to the number of servings of carbs in the foods you're eating – information that's easily found on food labels.

Cruise's theory is that by using the "carb swap" system, you get your insulin levels under control. He says that diets high in sugar increase insulin levels – which, in turn pushes fat into fat cells -- and cause a host of other side effects like wrinkles, low energy levels, and cellular inflammation.

Because fat and protein don’t increase insulin levels, there's no need to limit or track these nutrients, Cruise says. "They are the most satisfying nutrients so it is unlikely you will overeat them," he says.

The book contends that exercise isn't necessary for weight loss, but has a few pages on toning your abs after you lose the belly fat. Cruise encourages doing an 8-minute daily abdominal strength workout and a 20-minute power walk as often as possible for toning and strength – but this is optional.

The Belly Fat Cure also recommends finding a support buddy or network. Studies show that you're more likely to succeed at weight loss when you've got support.

The Belly Fat Cure: What the Experts Say
This diet "is just another gimmick, not the cure," says Zied, author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips.

The book makes several references to scientific studies, yet the author’s interpretation of the research is inaccurate, she says.

Indeed, Cruise’s recommendations are not supported by the wealth of scientific evidence or national recommendations such as the U.S. government's 2005 Dietary Guidelines.

Experts say any diet that allows unlimited portions of meats, fats, and sodium isn't heart-healthy – and heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. And, they say, limiting fresh fruit and low-fat dairy isn't a good idea because these foods provide essential nutrients, especially fiber, calcium, and vitamin D.

Further, insulin’s role in the body is not quite as simple as portrayed in The Belly Fat Cure, says Yale University researcher David Katz, MD, MPH.

Zied and Katz agree that most people eat too many processed foods and too much sugar, and that everyone could benefit by reading food labels to learn where sugar lurks. But they also recommend checking labels for other nutrients, like fat, saturated fat, trans fats, sodium, calories, and fiber.

Katz says he supports the diet's basic approach, with limits.

"Focusing on sugar is an attempt to help people identify how they can improve their diets," he says. "But in general, we need to get Americans to focus on eating more whole foods, mostly plants and not too much."

Losing 4-9 pounds per week and achieving a flatter stomach in just one week is an unrealistic goal, Zied says.

"Depending on how much you have to lose, you may experience a one-time loss of several pounds -- but not every week," she says.

The Belly Fat Cure: Food for Thought
When a diet plan sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Becoming aware of where sugar lurks and eating more whole, less processed foods would improve most people’s diet. And reading food labels is an excellent way to learn what is in your favorite foods.

But any plan that green-lights foods like burgers, steak, bacon, and sausage, eliminates healthy foods like fruits and low-fat dairy, and gives you a pass on exercise and calorie control is cause for concern. Not only will it be hard to sustain long-term, but it could result in nutritional excesses and deficiencies.

Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, is director of nutrition for WebMD. Her opinions and conclusions are her own.

Courtesy: WebMD.com newsletter

The latest cure for Belly Fat

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD WebMD Expert

Lose 4-9 pounds of belly fat each week without counting calories or doing a lick of exercise. It sounds too good to be true, even in a nation obsessed with finding an easy cure for belly fat. Yet that's just what celebrity fitness trainer Jorge Cruise proclaims in his new book, The Belly Fat Cure.

Cruise writes that you can eat all the foods you love -- including chips, ice cream, pizza, and cheeseburgers -- as long as you minimize your intake of sugar and processed carbohydrates through his "carb swap" system, and thus control your insulin levels.

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This may sound contradictory to those who remember Cruise’s last diet book, The 3-Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin.That book subscribed to the well-accepted portion control, calories in-calories out approach to weight loss.

But Cruise now says he was wrong. The latest science, he says, shows that "losing weight has nothing to do with calorie counting, eating less, or exercising more."

This theory, of course, is not embraced by most nutrition and diet experts.

"If you want to lose weight and keep it off, calories need to be controlled and regular physical activity is a prescription for a healthy heart, maintaining bones, muscle tissue, and more," says Elisa Zied, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

The Belly Fat Cure: What You Can Eat

The Belly Fat Cure eating plan consists of protein, fats, and vegetables with small amounts of sugar and complex carbs. Processed foods with sweeteners (even artificial sweeteners) are out. Wine, beer, champagne, and dark chocolate are OK -- but not cocktails or candy bars.

Much of the book consists of colorful displays of more than 100 "belly bad" meals (mostly from fast food and casual restaurant chains) made over into "belly good" recipes that are featured in the meal plans. (However, the recipes contain no nutrition information other than the grams of sugar and servings of carbs they contain – not even a calorie count.)

Five different weeklong meal plans designed for various eating styles, from carb lovers to meat-eaters, provide a framework for the eating plan.

When in doubt, dieters can follow the "no-excuses day" plan:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 2 slices buttered toast
Snack: Handful of walnuts
Lunch: Tuna salad on one piece pita bread
Snack: 1 cup cottage cheese with honey
Dinner: Grilled chicken or steak, sautéed veggies and 1/2 cup brown rice
Dieters are advised to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. Most fresh fruits, and beverages such as skim milk and 100% fruit juice, are depicted as "belly bad."

Because of their low sugar content, blackberries and blueberries are the only fruits allowed on The Belly Cure plan. Although fruits are generally considered healthy because of all the nutrients and fiber they contain, Cruise says you can get the same nutrients from vegetables without the (natural) sugar found in fruit. Once you reach your goal weight, you can add up to two pieces of fruit per day.

(Continued in our next post)
Courtesy: EbMD.com newsletter