As headlines swirl and climates whirl
And Wall Street finds its feet
There’s one refrain that doesn’t change
“Mommy, what’s there to eat?”

Well listen child, I’ll tell you what,
That’s no small query there.
Come over here, and sit right down,
In fact, pull up a chair.

Your question, dear one, though you ask,
With all good heart intended,
Is fraught with complications that
Aren’t often comprehended.

What we call ‘food’ is not the same
As what our grandmas ate.
Would she have had yellow 5 & 6
On her child’s dinner plate?

What about ‘acesulfame potassium’?
Can you pronounce that, love?
Did grandmother have a jar of that
In her cupboards up above?

What would she think of all these things
You children eat today?
Perhaps she’d bow her gentle head
And just begin to pray…..

But since she is no longer here,
It is up to you and me,
To be the ones who will inspire
Her “true food” legacy.

Perhaps as we begin this quest,
We might ‘cut the colors’ first?
Or try to avoid things we can’t pronounce?
Tell me, which do you think is worse?

You see, my little one, in our hands,
In our minds and in our hearts,
We have the ability to affect remarkable change
So, love, where should we start?

Written by Robyn O’Brien

Corn genetically engineered to resist pests and tolerate herbicides made up 85% of the U.S. corn crop in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

At the same time that we use this new technology to engineer insecticidal toxins into our food supply, the USDA has waived pesticide reporting requirements, making it almost impossible for farmers and consumers to know the levels of chemicals being applied to food crops. 

About 65% of genetically engineered (GE) corn contains a gene from a common soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, which produces a chemical that kills either corn rootworms or corn borers, but farmers have become increasingly non-compliant with federally-mandated planting requirements designed to keep the popular chemical technology useful.

According to the New York Times, this information “should be a wake-up call to E.P.A. that the regulatory system is not working.”

Perhaps our children have been trying to warn us of this failed regulatory system since the introduction of these crops in the 1990s.  In the last 15 years, we have seen jaw-dropping increases in the rates of allergies and digestive condition, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting a 265% increase in the rate of hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions. 

Given the growing number of Americans with food allergies, whose bodies increasingly launch inflammatory responses to food proteins in an effort to flush out those food proteins which the body views as “foreign”, perhaps it is time that we stop and address the foreign proteins and toxins that have recently been engineered into the American food supply. 

Because, as stated in the New York Times, “the regulatory system is not working.”  

Given the state of the health of our children, isn’t that obvious?

Potential Allergen in H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine May Put Children at Risk- New Test Reveals Both Presence and Severity of the Allergy

The World Health Organization recently declared H1N1 swine flu a global pandemic, resulting in the creation of rigorous vaccination programs worldwide and anxiety among parents of children with food allergies.  

Most H1N1 swine flu vaccines are prepared from virus grown in chicken’s eggs, resulting in a vaccine that contains remnants of egg proteins. Egg allergy is one of the most common food allergies in infants and young children. The allergy can be mild or severe but oftentimes the severity level remains unidentified. Whether a child will be at low or high risk for a clinical reaction as a consequence of receiving this vaccine depends upon the severity of their allergy. As the number of swine flu vaccinations increases, the likelihood of clinical reactions occurring in children with an undetected severe egg allergy intensifies.

Following exposure to egg, children with this allergy may suffer from clinical reactions including rash, gastrointestinal and respiratory infections and even anaphylaxis. In a press release issued last month, the US Food and Drug Administration recommended against H1N1 influenza vaccination for people with severe or life-threatening allergies to chicken eggs. Determining the severity of egg allergy is essential to knowing whether or not a child can safely receive the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.

A new test is available to determine the severity of a child’s egg allergy.  A Swedish corporation, Phadia, offers lab testing to accurately diagnose and identify severity level of egg allergy. ImmunoCAP, Phadia’s precise, reliable allergy test that measures IgE antibodies, indicates clinical reaction to both egg white (f1) and ovomucoid (f233). The f1 test will help the physician to confirm or rule out an allergy to egg white. If an allergy to egg white is confirmed, the f233 follow-up test can be conducted to identify the severity of egg allergy and whether the child is at low or high risk for clinical reaction. Phadia is the only company to offer this important follow-up test.

Phadia’s ImmunoCAP allergy test system facilitates diagnosis in children with suspected egg allergy, and, upon diagnosis, determines the level of allergy severity. These tests allow physicians to provide timely advice to parents and caregivers anxious to know whether or not their child should receive the H1N1 swine flu vaccine.  

For more information, please contact:  Phadia Inc.: Magnus Borres, M.D., Medical Director  contact@phadia.com

I was raised on capitalism and the Wall Street Journal.

As a child, my family celebrated the birth of Reaganomics the way one would have celebrated the birth of a child. There was prosperity to be had by all — if only we believed.

My father, like so many of his era, fully supported deregulation and the notion of trickle down economics. If we loosen the regulatory purse strings that government tightly controls, we will all prosper. The system works.

As a family, we were fortunate to have more than most, and we were Republican to the core. I was genetically Republican, the way that someone is genetically programmed to have brown hair or blue eyes — every cell in my body had been programmed with the GOP gene.

And I trusted that the political values that my family had instilled in me would serve me well. I believed in the system.

And then one of my children got sick. With a blood condition that no one could pronounce and a pediatric mandate requiring immediate enrollment at a children’s hospital. And I awoke.

Suddenly, everywhere I turned, there were sick children. Children with diabetes, children with cancer, children with obesity, children with asthma and children with allergies. What had happened?

As headlines in the paper warned me of environmental dangers, I began to pay attention. What was in the food? Wasn’t organics a left-leaning thing? And what about the plastics and the baby bottles and the vaccines? Should I worry? Doesn’t our system protect us from these dangers?

And without realizing it, an internal battle had silently begun.

I lay awake at night after conversations with my father, who dismissed my concerns and growing awareness of our system’s shortcomings. Had a generation of grandfathers failed to recognize the health risks associated with capitalism’s profits, unintentionally jeopardizing the well being of their grandchildren?

I had been raised to support the system, to believe in it, to never question it, and certainly to never speak out. Activism was something that “radicals” did, certainly not conservative, Republican soccer moms.

But I couldn’t shake the internal dialogue. Armed with an MBA in finance and my four children, I began to investigate the expanding role that corporations had taken in the system in which I was raised to believe. And I was stunned.

There were insecticidal toxins in crops to increase profitability for the world’s largest agrichemical corporation — a company whose former employees included Donald Rumsfeld and Clarence Thomas. There were petroleum-based chemicals in my children’s toys and shampoos that were a product of an oil corporation that had recruited me in business school. How had this happened? Had we forsaken our physical health for financial wealth?

As I struggled with the responsibility that I felt for betraying my own children, I realized that it was my responsibility to act. But the internal battle raged on — as the call from my conscience collided with the familiar comfort of conformity — and I was paralyzed.

But with sick children, paralysis was not an option.

I realized that I had to find the courage, on behalf of my children and others, to speak out against the very system in which my family believed.

And I reluctantly stepped forward.

With the words of another crusader in hand, I found my voice: “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls”.

It is with that hope, and holding the hands of my four children, that I took a stand.

It is our turn to engage, to help our fathers re-create the world that their grandchildren deserve. We must not be daunted by the enormity of the task at hand.

If we dare to dream that it is possible to affect this change for our children, we will be inspired by hope and find the courage and capacity to act. Together.

It is not too late. And “remember, during those times of doubt and frustration, that there is nothing naïve about your impulse to change the world.”

For the sake of our children, we have to.

According to Dr. Alan Greene, two-thirds of high school students have either high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, predisposing them to a lifetime of chronic conditions.  And a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control shows an eye-popping 265% increase in the rates of hospitalizations related to food allergic reactions. 

According to Dr. Kenneth Bock, genetics don’t change that quickly. Environment does.   And while we’ve got 80,000 chemicals in our everyday products here in the US, the EPA has required testing on only 200 existing chemicals and restricted only five of them, despite the fact thousands of them have been banned, removed or restricted  from children’s products in developed countries around the world. 

Is it any wonder that the health of the American children is under seige? 

Evidence continues to mount over the impact that environmental toxins contained in vaccines, foods and sipply cups are having on our health.  On any given day, an American child might be exposed to formaldehyde in a flu vaccine, endocrine-disrupting bisphenol-A in a sippy cup, and insecticidal proteins in high fructose corn syrup, presenting a stunning assault on the developing immune system of a child.

And rather than prevent and protect, as governments around the world have done, we prescribe: insulin pumps, epinephrine injectors and asthma inhalers in record numbers to the American children. 

So while Mexico bans endocrine-disrupting chemicals from their plastics due to the harm they’ve been shown to present to the reproductive system in children, American children are experiencing early onset puberty.  And while France bans corn that has been genetically mutated to contain insecticidal proteins designed to create neurological and gastrointestinal damange to the creatures that eat it, 1 in 3 American children now has allergies, asthma, ADHD or autism and the Corn Refiners Association of America insists that one of corn’s derivatives, high fructose corn syrup, banned in other developed countries, is “natural. And while other developed countries offer a delayed vaccination schedule, our children are being injected with compounds whose safey has not yet been tested in combination. 

With the environmental assault on the health of our children, is it any wonder that health care related costs now contribute 17% to our nation’s GDP?

While our children may be viewed as an earnings stream for epinephrine injectors, insulin pumps and asthma inhalers, perhaps  we should also view them as our ‘canaries in the coalmine.’  They just may be trying to warn us of the environmental dangers in front of all of us. 

To learn what you can do to help protect the health of our children, please click here to learn more about the Kids Safe Chemical Act and how you can Do One Thing.

Together, we can restore the health of our children.

Sanofi Pasteur’s injected vaccine: Approved for ALL age groups (infants 6 months of age through adulthood and the elderly). It comes in several forms:

Prefilled single ½ dose syringe with NO mercury – for infants 6 thru 35 months of age. Prefilled single full dose syringe with NO mercury – for anyone 3 years and older.
Single-dose (full-dose) vial with NO mercury – for anyone 3 years and older.
Multidose bottle (contains ten full doses or twenty ½ doses) WITH 25 mcg of mercury per full dose – for anyone 6 months and older (infants 6 to 35 months would get a half dose (0.25 ml), 3 years and older would get the full 0.5 ml dose).
Other ingredients include: the viral proteins, egg proteins, gelatin, formaldehyde, polyethylene glycol p-isooctyphenyl ether, sucrose.

CSL’s injected vaccine: Approved for anyone 18 years and older. It comes in two forms:

Prefilled single-dose syringe with NO mercury.
Multidose bottle with ten doses WITH 24.5 mcg of mercury per dose.
Other ingredients include: the viral proteins, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate, potassium phosphate, calcium, taurodeoxycholate, egg protein, 2 antibiotics, and beta-propiolactone.

Novartis’s injected vaccine: Approved for anyone 4 years and older. It comes in two forms:

Prefilled single-dose syringes with a trace amount of mercury (less than 1 mcg because 99% of it is filtered out).
Multidose bottle with ten doses WITH 25 mcg of mercury per dose.

Other ingredients include: the viral proteins, sodium chloride, phosphate, egg proteins, two antibiotics, betapropiolactone, nonylphenol ethoxylate.

MedImmune’s live virus nasal spray vaccine: Approved for anyone 2 years through 49 years of age. There is no mercury.

Other ingredients include: the live viruses, egg protein, MSG, pig gelatin, arginine, sucrose, potassium phosphate, an antibiotic

How many doses are needed?

According to Dr. Sears, all infants and children from 6 months through 9 years of age are supposed to get two doses of this vaccine, one month apart (no matter what brand you are using, and you probably shouldn’t switch brands between the two doses). This is needed to generate an adequate immune response. Anyone who is 10 years and older only needs ONE dose.

Can doses be given along with other vaccines?

According to Dr. Sears, the product inserts make it very clear that no testing has yet been done on these versions of the flu vaccine to determine if they can be given along with other vaccines. The government is operating under the assumption that these vaccines should behave the same way as their regular seasonal flu vaccine counterparts.

According to Dr. Sears,technically you can get them together (both flu shots together) or with any other vaccine. But Dr. Sears’ advice? Get them alone, as far apart as you can from another flu shot or any other shots. More on this below.

What safety and efficacy testing has been done on these vaccines?

According to Dr. Sears,”The product inserts make it VERY clear that the “swine” flu versions of these vaccines have NOT undergone any testing to demonstrate whether or not they are safe and whether or not they even work. They are relying on the fact that they are so similar to the regular flu shots that they should work just as well”.

What about pregnant and/or nursing mothers?

According to Dr. Sears, “The flu shots are ALREADY recommended for pregnant and nursing moms, BUT (and this is a really huge but) the vaccine product inserts make it very clear that the regular flu vaccines have never been tested on pregnant or nursing women to determine if there is any harm to fetuses or young babies (with one exception – the ­­­­Flumist nasal spray brand did have some testing in this area, BUT not enough, as is stated in the product insert).”

According to Dr. Sears, if you do get a flu shot, make sure it is mercury free (or at least only TRACE mercury).

What should I get first, regular or swine flu shots, and how do I space them out?

Dr. Sears’ basic advice for anyone is to only get one flu shot at a time, spaced out one month apart. So, it would take 3 months to work in all four doses (2 regular flu and 2 swine flu).

Dr. Sears advises parents to delay any vaccines for diseases that don’t pose an immediate danger to a baby’s or child’s life and catch up on those vaccines in Feb or March, a couple months after finishing the flu vaccines. Diseases that aren’t usually life-threatening (keeping in mind that ANY disease can be fatal, but the following are less likely to be) include measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and Hep A. Diseases that don’t exist in the U.S. or that don’t occur during infancy in the U.S. (so even though they can be very severe, a child has almost no risk of catching it in the U.S.) that could be safely delayed are polio, Hep B, tetanus, and diphtheria (although to get a pertussis vaccine, tetanus and diphtheria have to come along with it).

Diseases that DO pose an immediate danger to babies and children are HIB and PC meningitis, Rotavitus, and Pertussis. So, Dr. Sears would rather children stay on time with those four vaccines and delay the flu shots (if you feel comfortable delaying flu shots).

For more information on ingredients contained in the H1N1, please visit the FDA’s site.

For more information about vaccines and candid insight and information from Dr. Sears, please visit Ask Dr. Sears

The content of the AllergyKids’ blog, site and newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For medical advice, please contact your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. The content of the AllergyKids’ newsletter is not intended to constitute legal advice or substitute for obtaining legal advice from your own counsel.

Ever wonder what this food fiasco is costing us?  You and me?   Taxpayers?  Well, the Economist recently assembled these jaw-dropping food safety stats in a Farm to Fork article in their October 9^th issue:

1. There are 26,000 food poisoning cases per 100,000 Americans, every year (an eye-popping 26% of the population)

2. Compare that to only 3,400 cases in the UK, and just 1,200 in France. Stunning. 

3. 76 million Americans become ill with food poisoning. That’s as if every child in America were to get sick.  All 75 million of them.  And then some.

4. Insufficient food safety is costing the US $35 Billion a year (as a benchmark, the entire 2009 budget for the FDA was only $2.4 Billion).

According to the article, “the wave of food scares that has swept America over the past few years has caused a crisis in the country’s $1 trillion food industry” and is resulting in a food fight of epic proportions.

With Michael Pollan on the frontline, we’ve also got Bill Gates touring the globe, expousing the benefits of “technofood” as Chief Technology Advocate of food’s operating system (Monsanto’s genetically engineered, patented and licensed, biotechnology food proteins). 

While the recent introduction of “technofood” and the insertion of foreign proteins into our food supply (which began in 1994) has benefited agrichemical shareholders, 300 million stakeholders in the American food supply are seeing inflammatory reactions to food at record rates and the landscape of children’s health has changed.

So, perhaps as we listen to these men, we should also listen to the voices of our children as the EPA calls for grant solicitations to study these genetically engineered plant-induced food allergies, and pause and observe the unforeseen consequences that these foreign proteins appear to be presenting in the 1 in3 Americam children with autism, allergies, ADHD or asthma.

Before proceeding further with “technofood” and its novel operating system, perhaps we should stop and listen to our ‘canaries in the coalmine’ who may be trying to sound food’s ”Dange-ometer“.

An eye opening article, Does the Vaccine Matter?, written by Shannon Brownlee, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of Overtreated (2007) & Jeanne Lenzer, an investigative journalist and a frequent contributor to the British medical journal BMJ, provides stunning insight into the history of the flu virus and the pharmaceutical corporations profitting from the sale of vaccines.

In summary,

• Vaccination is the core strategy of the U.S. government’s plan to combat the swine flu and will boost GDP through associated pharmaceutical revenue.

• The U.S. government has spent roughly $3 billion stockpiling vaccines and anti-viral drugs on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry.

• The CDC is recommending that 159 million Americans receive a swine flu vaccine injection.

• Viruses mutate with amazing speed, including genetically mutated viruses contained in vaccines.

• Of those who have died from the Swine Flu in the U.S., roughly 70 percent were already diseased with some serious underlying condition such as asthma or AIDS.

• Each year, 100 million Americans get vaccinated, approximately 1/3 of the population.

• Vulnerability of those with compromised immune systems, autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma present risks.

As a benchmark, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year an estimated 87 million Americans are sickened by contaminated food, 371,000 are hospitalized with food-borne illnesses.

While the article is lengthy, it provides insight into the decision making process at both the government and corporate levels that have enabled the introduction of these vaccines.

You can learn more from Ms. Brownlees’ article, Do Vaccines Matter? at The Atlantic.

The content of the AllergyKids’ blog, site and newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For medical advice, please contact your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. The content of the AllergyKids’ newsletter is not intended to constitute legal advice or substitute for obtaining legal advice from your own counsel.

As swine flu pandemic headlines swirl, parents around the country are asking the question: Is the H1N1 vaccine safe for my family?

In a Sept. 28 survey, Consumer Reports found just 35 percent of parents plan to have their children vaccinated. According to WebMD, the Consumer Reports National Research Center: “Flu and Seasonal Flu/Swine Flu Vaccination Poll Report,” which was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, found the following:

•Only 35% of parents plan to have their child vaccinated against swine flu.
•Nearly two-thirds of parents who don’t plan to have their child vaccinated say they worry the swine flu vaccine is too new to be safe.
•Overall, 28% of respondents are “not very” or “not at all” confident the swine flu vaccine is safe. An additional 10% say they don’t know whether the vaccine is safe.
•Although the CDC says vaccination is the most important weapon in the fight against flu, only 41% of parents think flu vaccination is “very important” in keeping kids healthy during flu season.
•Most parents are at least “somewhat worried” that their kids will get swine flu. But 43% of parents are “not at all worried or “not too worried.”
•39% of those who don’t get flu shots worry about the vaccine’s side effects — or think the vaccine will give them the flu, even though this is a medical impossibility.
•More than half of people who don’t get flu shots think they’ll never get the flu.

A week after the extensive independent Consumer Reports study finding just 35 percent of parents plan to have their children vaccinated, a Harvard School of Public Health survey found 51 percent of parents plan to have their children immunized. Forty percent of adults in the same survey were “absolutely certain” they would be vaccinated. Late last week, a third poll, this one by The Associated Press and GfK, found more than a third of parents did not want their children vaccinated for H1N1.

Given the uncertainty around the introduction of this new vaccine, the growing concern over vaccines roles in bowel disorders associated with autism, allergies, ADHD and asthma, while seeking the opinion of your doctor, you may want to ask the following questions:
•ask about the egg base of the vaccine and its risk level for children with egg allergy
•ask about other autoimmune disorders that may be triggered by the administration of the vaccine
•ask to see a copy of the manufacturers’ pamphlet that accompanies the vaccines and what compensation your doctor might receive from the vaccine manufacturers for administering the vaccine
•read the fine print listed in the pamphlet, focusing on the required disclosure of the risks associated with the vaccine
•ask what compensation he or she receives from the pharmaceutical industry for adminstering the vaccine and if there is any recourse against his or her practice should he or she speak out with concerns over the vaccine
•watch Dr. Oz on CNN

Should you choose to vaccinate your family with the H1N1 vaccine, the following precautionary steps are suggested to reduce autoimmune reactions to vaccines and treat vaccine exposure, by Dr. Russell Blaylock whose work is detailed in The Unhealthy Truth (Random House 2009):

1.Place a cold compress on the site of the injection immediately after the injection and continue this for at least two days. If symptoms of fever, irritability, fatigue or flu-like symptoms reoccur—continue the cold compresses until they abate. A cold shower or bath will also help.
2.Take fish oils as they have the correct balance of EPA and DHA to reduce the cytokine storm. The dose is one tablespoon a day—if severe symptoms develop—two tablespoons a day until well and then switch to one tablespoon a day. Children—one teaspoon a day.
3.Curcumin, quercetin, ferulic acid and ellagic acid as a mixture—the first two must be mixed with extravirgin olive in one teaspoon. Take the mix three times a day (500 mg of each)
4.Vitamin E (natural form) 400 IU a day (high in gamma-E)
5.Vitamin C 1000 mg four times a day
6.Astaxanthin 4 mg a day
7.Zinc 20 mg a day for one week then 5 mg a day
8.Avoid all immune stimulating supplements (mushroom extracts, whey protein) except beta-glucan—it has been shown to reduce inflammation, microglial activation and has a reduced risk of aggravating autoimmunity, while increasing antiviral cellular immunity.
9.Take a multivitamin/mineral daily (one without iron—Extend Core)
10.Magnesium citrate/malate 500 mg of elemental magnesium two capsules three times a day
11.Vitamin D3:
•All Children—5000 IU a day for two weeks after vaccine then 2000 IU a day thereafter
•Adults—20,000 IU a day after vaccine for two weeks then 10,000 IU a day thereafter
•Take 500 mg to 1000 mg of calcium citrate a day for adults and 250 mg a day for children under age 12 years.
12.Avoid all mercury-containing seafood
13.Avoid omega-6 oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, canola and peanut oils)
14.Blenderize parsley and celery and drink 8 ounces twice a day
15.Take Jatoba tea extract (add 20 drops in on cup of tea) one day before the vaccine and the twice a day thereafter.

And keep in mind the wisdom of CNN’s health reporter, Elizabeth Cohen, who highlights how we can do so much to protect the health of our families as empowered patients!

The content of the AllergyKids’ blog, site and newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. For medical advice, please contact your physician or other qualified healthcare professional. The content of the AllergyKids’ newsletter is not intended to constitute legal advice or substitute for obtaining legal advice from your own counsel.

According to CNN and a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Immunology, milk allergy is the most common food allergy, having established itself in the number one position in the last ten years.

People with milk allergy recognize milk proteins as “foreign.” In response to these “foreign” proteins, their immune systems launch an inflammatory reaction in an effort to flush out these “foreign invaders” or milk proteins, according to Dr. Kenneth Bock, MD, author of Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism,ADHD, Allergies and Asthma.

Interestingly, in 1994, a new and “foreign” protein was introduced into the milk supply in the United States. This new milk protein, called recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) was commercially introduced into the US food supply and exclusively sold by Monsanto under the name Posilac, and is a synthetic growth hormone designed to manipulate the hormones of cows in order to increase milk production and enhance profitability for the dairy industry.

However, scientific evidence showed that cows injected with this protein showed increases in infertility, birth defects and fetal loss as well as hormonal disruption, and increasing evidence showing that this manipulated protein may cause breast, colon and prostate cancer prompting governments around the world – from Canada, to the UK, across Europe, Japan and to Australia – to reject its use.

In the US, however, it was a different story.

And now, fifteen years after the controversial approval of rBGH at the FDA, not only is milk the most common food allergy in the United States, but according to the American Cancer Society, the US also has the highest cancer rate in the world – 1 in 8 women has breast cancer, 1 in 6 men has prostate cancer. Recognizing that correlation is not causation, the epidemic increases in the rates of allergies and cancers in the United States suggest that further research is merited.

Today, a new CNN report by Lou Dobbs highights not only the questions around the safety of this ‘foreign’ milk protein, but also the safety of appointing former Monsanto employee, Michael Taylor, a Monsanto attorney who became a lobbyist and drafted guidelines that exempted milk producers from labeling dairy products from cows that had been treated with rBGH, as “Food Safety” Czar:

Embedded video from CNN Video

Given the uncertainty over this “foreign” milk protein, the fact that other developed countries around the world have not allowed its use, and that a November 2007 report from the FDA states that the FDA “does not have the capacity to ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply” putting “American lives at risk”, perhaps it makes sense to protect our families the way families in other developed countries have been protected and learn more about What’s In Our Milk? in order to safeguard the health and well being of our families:

• Visit www.preventcancer.org
• Buy milk, cheese and yogurt that is labeled “rBGH-free”
• Purchase beef that is also labeled “rBGH-free”

Signs of a milk allergy may include but are not limited to:

• Stomach aches, colic, gastrointestinal discomfort
• Allergic Shiners (dark circles beneath the eyes)
• Eczema, rashes and skin disorders (including acne)
• Migraines, headaches and other neurological symptoms
• As well as the classic allergic symptoms like hives, swelling, difficulty breathing and possible anaphylaxis (as detailed at www.allergykids.com)

There is so much that we can do to protect the health of our families. And together, we can affect remarkable change in doing just “One Thing”.