Clear for Life

Once in a blue moon I get these emails that just crack me up.

So one of my customers send me this:

I was having these days a quarrel with one of my friends, who stated that meat is crucial for the development of the human brain and that that has always been so. He also said that the brain of our pre-ancestors (those "monkey-men") was able to develop only because of the fact that they regularly started to eat meat. And because of those meat proteins the brain was ablae to develop from 300 grams into 1,7 kg. And that if it hadn’t been for the consumption of meat, we would still be in a monkey-like stage.
Also he stated that it is unhealthy for the development of a child (and its brain in particulary) to be raised up on a raw food diet. I have no contra-arguments.

Let’s help this fellow out.

My first advice: don’t get into the argument. Just walk away. Tell your friend something like this ‘thanks for your opinion. If you choose to eat meat, that’s your choice and I respect that. I choose not to, and I hope you respect my choice as I do yours. If I develop an obvious brain-defect as a result of my diet, I’ll come back for a second helping of your opinion.’

That usually gets people off my back. But if that doesn’t work I follow it up with something a bit more direct. I usually say that everybody has an a**hole and an opinion, content of both of which are equally valuable to me. Yes, that’s rude, but at that point it’s obvious he doesn’t respect my choice and want to ‘convert’ me. I really have no interest in dealing with people like that anymore.

I’m saying this, and from a lot of experience and frustration, these so-called debates are not about diet. They are more about religion. For many diet has become a religion.

As a Christian it doesn’t help you to debate with a Muslim over the benefits of your religion. And this applies to any pair of religions. Similarly it does you no good to debate over the merits of one diet over another. That’s because rationality rarely enters these discussions.

When I was more active at acne forums I used to get into these discussion. Now I just couldn’t care less because they usually end up to what I call ‘food fights’ where people sling each other with different scientific studies or websites that support their opinion. The winner is the one with most ’science’ backing their case, or the one who manages to sound more rational and unbiased.

Common sense and rationality are always the first victims. Manners and politeness are usually the next in line.

This is exactly in line with the way the human mind works.

I go into detail of how this happens in my upcoming book ‘How to be happy and optimistic before you get clear‘ (that may or may not be the final name). But basically our beliefs makes themselves true to us. What you believe literally comes true to you, or at least seems to be true, which, as far as your actual experience of life is concerned, is the same thing.

All the incoming information and everything that happens to you if filtered through your beliefs. It’s deleted, distorted and generalized until it fits what you believe. It’s like a looking at a world through colored glasses. Everything is tinted by the glasses. Logic is twisted to fit the beliefs, I’ll show you an example of this a bit later.

Contrary evidence be damned. It’s just wiped out or ignored. Even in the face of contradictory evidence people are quite capable of convincing themselves that their particular diet is the best. Just like they are capable of convincing themselves that aliens have taken over their fridge and telling them to prepare for that arrival of the mother ship.

Arguing against these beliefs is useless. People defend their beliefs to tooth and nail.

And unfortunately in many cases these people get fanatical. They cannot tolerate opposing beliefs. If you don’t follow their dietary dogma, they feel compelled to ‘convert’ you. Or at least to get into an argument with you. From my experience this behavior is far more common in meat eaters and low-carb people than in vegetarians. But it could just be a reflection of the sites I’ve visited and read frequently. Vegetarians are also guilty of this. Many raw food groups and gurus also flirt with religion in their approach to diet.

So let’s look at the original question and how it relates to this. Then I’ll give you more examples (if you haven’t doses off : )).

The argument that meat was crucial to the development of the human brain is a perfect example of how the religious aspect of a diet twists the original research and blows the thing out of proportion.

I looked into the matter and found the original research that touched this whole thing off. Here’s the summary of the findings.

It was this new meat diet, full of densely-packed nutrients, that provided the catalyst for human evolution, particularly the growth of the brain, said Katharine Milton, an authority on primate diet.

Without meat, said Milton, it’s unlikely that proto humans could have secured enough energy and nutrition from the plants available in their African environment at that time to evolve into the active, sociable, intelligent creatures they became. Receding forests would have deprived them of the more nutritious leaves and fruits that forest-dwelling primates survive on, said Milton. (emphasis added).

Meat-eating was essential for human evolution, says UC Berkeley anthropologist specializing in diet

So the only aspect of meat that made is, according to this thesis (in other words speculation) crucial is availability. It was simply a conveniently available source of calories, and some nutrients, that the people had before obtained from plant foods.

And the author of this these continues.

Milton said that her theories do not reflect on today’s vegetarian diets, which can be completely adequate, given modern knowledge of nutrition.

"We know a lot about nutrition now and can design a very satisfactory vegetarian diet," said Milton, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management.

Meat-eating was essential for human evolution, says UC Berkeley anthropologist specializing in diet

Of course the fact that the author is of this speculative thesis herself said that vegetarian diet is sufficient to meet the needs of human deters the religious meat eaters from using her research to back up their arguments.

Even beyondveg.com, the flagship of anti-vegetarian and anti-raw food websites, quotes research that says it mostly comes to getting sufficient calories.

These results imply that changes in diet quality during hominid evolution were linked with the evolution of brain size. The shift to a more calorically dense diet was probably needed in order to substantially increase the amount of metabolic energy being used by the hominid brain. Thus, while nutritional factors alone are not sufficient to explain the evolution of our large brains, it seems clear that certain dietary changes were necessary for substantial brain evolution to take place.

http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-4a.shtml

It’s not enough that they use only a selected aspects of the research to support their claims, then they take the case further by venturing into these mind bending contradictions.

The thesis continues that because human brain grew in size (and in energy demand) other body parts shrinked to allow the brain to have more energy. According to the theory the human gut took the hit.

Since gut size is associated with dietary quality (DQ), and the gut must shrink to support encephalization, this suggests that a high-quality diet is required for encephalization. That is, a higher-quality diet (more easily digested, and liberating more energy/nutrients per unit of digestive energy expended) allows a smaller gut, which frees energy for encephalization.

http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/comp-anat/comp-anat-4b.shtml

And this they use to justify meat eating???

Which one these is of higher quality (more easily digested, and liberating more energy/nutrients per unit of digestive energy expended, to quote the site)? Fruits, which require 15 to 30 minutes to digest, or meat that sits in your stomach for hours? Which one is going to liberate more energy/nutrients per unit of digestive energy?

It boggles my mind how these people can use that as an argument for eating meat. Digesting the complex proteins and breaking down the muscle tissues takes a huge amount of digestive energy.

Anyway, this is more about religion that about rationality.

The argument that not eating meat is bad for the development of child’s brain is in glaring violation of reality. If meat was somehow essential to the development of the human brain how is it possible that we have vegetarians, sometimes in many generation, with apparently healthy, happy, and, dare I say, even intelligent children?

According to the fear mongering of meat eaters these kids should be in a monkey-like state and possibly locked into a zoo. If that were the case I have a feeling I would have read about it somewhere.

On a vegetarian board we found another point of view to this discussion about brain evolution.

Thus, from what I learned, the correlation is less with the advent of hunting and meat, and more to do with the need for a larger brain to handle the complicated social orders that humans develop. This also coincides with other animals that have relatively large intelligence. Macaws and gorrilas, for example, do not eat meat, but do have a complex social network that nessesitates complex brains. Dolphins and crows aren’t intelligent because they dine on meat, but because they have very intricate and shifting social systems which nessesitate a complex brain to handle the ever shifting and changing needs to the group, and of the individual.

http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=40522

You pick the explanation which makes more sense. Meat or the demand for brain power as a driving factor of brain evolution.

Now that I’m on the roll let’s keep going.

This is again from beyondveg.com

Those who promote (obsessive) fear as a motivation for their "ideal, perfect" diet are promoting eating disorders (mental illness) rather than a healthy diet.

One does not have to go far in the raw vegan movement to find people promoting rawism using pathological fear as a major motivation factor. In particular, the following fears are often actively promoted: fear of cooked food, fear of protein, fear of mucus. Fear, if it becomes strong enough (which can happen if one believes the "party line" strongly enough), can turn a raw diet into an eating disorder similar to anorexia nervosa. Fear is not the basis for a diet; it is, however, the basis for an eating disorder.

http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/claims-cred/claims-cred-1c.shtml#emot%20instab

I do agree that many raw food groups are highly dogmatic and guilty of this, consequently they also promote the high-fat version of raw foods that’s a dietary disaster.

But let’s not forget that meat promoters are equally guilty of this.

The friend of my customer was using a heavily fear-based argument. Most people who post about their vegetarian success at acne.org forum are meat with suspicions and questions about vitamin B12 (and issue that has more to do with the health of the digestive track and affects both vegetarians and meat eaters) and protein. Plus they are bombarded with horror stories of losing muscle and wasting away.

Low-carb fanatics have categorized vegetarians as weak, timid, pale and frail. Whereas meat makes people strong, sexy and athletic. Do I sense a touch of fear mongering there?

Another ‘quality’ raw fooders are accused of and is used as against raw food diet.

The hostility displayed toward those who disagree also strongly discourages dissent and independent thinking. This situation is a fascinating psychological phenomenon, except when you happen to be a target of the mindless hostility displayed by certain extremists! Such behavior, when evident, speaks directly to the lack of credibility and the mental balance (or apparent lack thereof) of the incurably fanatical dietary advocate.

http://www.beyondveg.com/billings-t/claims-cred/claims-cred-1c.shtml#emot%20instab

A recent diet discussion at acne.org forum gives a nice example of this. It’s also a perfect example of how the beliefs people hold twist their logic and arguments.

The discussion is title Eat real food in it’s natural state, Your body will take care of the rest. I just chose this thread because I’ve been following it recently and it follows the same pattern as every other diet discussion there.

The original poster argues that we should eat foods in their natural state in order to stay healthy. I fully agree with that. It’s just that the term natural state is surprisingly fluid. By the way, this is not against the original poster. He’s just parroting the same arguments I’ve seen on so many other sites and in so many other discussions.

So the gist of the message is to keep foods in their natural state. The poster begins with animal products.

Animal foods- Don’t remove the fat from meat, don’t remove the yolks from eggs, don’t remove the fat from milk. Get unpasteurized, non-homogenized milk if you can. Don’t limit yourself to only muscle meats, the organ meats are by far the most nutritious part of the animal. Eat wild game if you can, if not try to find grass-fed, pasture raised meat. Don’t avoid saturated fat and cholesterol, our bodies have been consuming these substances for millions of years and we are well adapted to them.

But when he/she turns to vegetables the fluidity of the term natural state starts to show up.

Vegetables- tubers, roots, leafy greens; the more the merrier. Many vegetables are more easily absorbed by the body when they have been cooked and had fat added to them. Raw veggies aren’t necessarily better for you, they are the hardest for the body to digest and absorb.

So all of a sudden it’s ok to not only cook your vegetables but also add fat into them. Now, to me that seems like altering foods from their natural state, but maybe it’s just me.

When we move to grains the term changes again.

Grains- don’t eat them. They must be processed and refined to be edible. If you ate a grain in it’s natural state you would be eating a seed. Grains have only made up a significant part of our diet for the last 10,000 years, which is "coincidentally" when all diseases of civilization began to arise (including acne). Our bodies are not equipped to handle this amount of starch, not to mention the gluten and anti-nutrients.

So all of a sudden cooking is bad again. Since cooking is the main processing that’s done to grains.

He/she also says that "If you ate a grain in it’s natural state you would be eating a seed.". Ok, that’s all clear and good.

Now, let’s apply the same logic to animal products. For this I’m going to quote a girl there whose eating a raw vegan diet, very similar to what I recommend in Clear for Life. She put it so well.

Yeah I would too I’m guessing there isn’t a meat eater on this site with the balls to pick up a chicken, slit its throat and start munching the way nature intended lol yuk

That’s how real carnivores eat their food. They don’t just select the muscle meats and some organs. Aside from bones lions eat almost all of their prey. They drink blood, lymph and other liquids. They relish on intestines and other organs. Often they even eat bone marrows.

And they eat it all raw and fresh. Right after the kill.

That’s how you eat animal products in their natural state. You don’t carefully select the best parts, cut out the disgusting fat, then hang the meat to soften and finally cook it thoroughly and add spices to make it taste better.

Of course when you challenge these meat eaters for it, the logic changes.

Also in terms of food in its natural state. I take the rule of preferring cooked chicken (roasted/grilled etc) rather than processed chicken nuggets. I will eat cooked sweet potatoes, rather than potato chips. Trying to eat food as close to their natural state as possible.

Or they get abusive, and this is where the intolerance towards dissents starts to rear its ugly head. This is a mild example compared to some abuses I’ve seen.

Oh ffs there were no cookers of course but there were these miracles called FIRES.

People have cooked for millenia. Why do you think our guts cannot cope with large amounts of raw meats? We have evolved away from that. There is nothing ‘unnatural’ about cooking OR WE WOULDNT FUCKING DO IT.

Then the posts move onto more personal level.

IN MY OPINION, you came into the thread to indirectly say that eating meat is not natural and is not right to do, obviously knowing this would annoy people. You’re post had nothing to do with the original post, you just had to get your two cents in there IMO. Then when people oppose what you’re saying, which you had to know would happen…they’re being argumentative right? lol, that’s pretty childish IN MY OPINION

Ad it’s just going to accelerate from that. How far? Depends on how much personal abuse she is willing to tolerate. IT ends when she shakes her head in frustration and just stops caring. Then the meat heads say ‘UGH’ and conclude that they have won the debate (sorry couldn’t resist). Dissent opinion has been silenced.

This doesn’t really help anyone. Pretty soon she concludes, like I have, that posting on these forums is just a huge waste of time. Her experience and expertise, that could have helped many people, is not available anymore. The fact remains that she cleared her acne. She’s getting attacked simply because she did it while going against the beef. And this happens to everybody who promotes vegan diets there.

Dissent is not tolerated in religion.

Finally I want to add that this is not a crusade against meat or meat eating. The only thing I have against meat eating is that the way animals are raised currently makes it an environmental disaster. I still eat meat occasionally. I don’t think that health wise it’s very smart, but I have other reasons for eating it.

Take this as a lengthy warning against religious and fanatic beliefs when it comes to diet. They don’t serve you or anyone else you come in contact with.

I believe that low-fat, raw vegan diet is health wise the best for humans. Other people disagree with me and that’s ok. I also know that people may have preexisting condition (such as food allergies) that make following this diet  difficult, and can even lead to health problems. Therefore individual approach is always needed. This applies to all the other diets also, thus there is no single ultimate diet that fits everybody.

Just remember that any diet that takes you away from processed junk foods is a step to the right direction. Also anything that simplifies your eating is a step to the right direction.

Be well, and be sane.

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear Skin.

Do you have a nice picture of yourself that you’d like to share, but won’t because of your acne?

You probably know that celebrity photos get retouched quite heavily before they go public. A new service offers similar ‘help’ for mere mortals.For $7 you can treat your photos with enough of a facelift to put them on Facebook and share them with your friends.

Misleading?

I’ll leave that for you to decide. Acne is anyway not permanent, especially if you follow Clear for Life, so why make it so in your photos?

If this sounds interesting you can check it out here:

http://picwash.com/

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear Skin.

Mike Adams of Naturalnews.com posted this fantastic cartoon and commentary to his site few days ago. It’s not directly related to acne, but very relevant to any freedom loving person.

It’s about the tyranny of FDA and how they are driving natural health companies out of business. So far they target only supplement companies, but it’s not too hard to imagine that not in so far future they’ll start targeting anyone spreading any information that contradicts the ‘pharmaceutical truth’ - meaning that you’ll never hear about real option for clearing your acne.

So please follow the action items in the article and do your bit - I know I’ll do mine.

So here’s the cartoon and the article. Credit goes entirely to Mike Adams at Naturalnews.com. Article original source: http://www.naturalnews.com/024569.html

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) NaturalNews has learned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is running a criminal extortion racket designed to drain cash from health supplement companies and shift it into the pockets of top FDA contractors. This organized crime operation has been running for years, and it has operated with impunity because each company targeted by the scam feels isolated and alone, unable to face the astronomical legal bills of going to court and battling the FDA. So one by one, they agree to "settle" with the FDA for crimes they never committed. Part of the settlement, of course, involves the payment of FDA employees or contractors who pocket the money extorted from health companies.
NaturalNews has interviewed executives from three different companies who have been targeted for extortion by U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees. At their request, the names of those companies are being kept confidential until legal action being taken against them is resolved. Interviews have been recorded, with permission, with two of those companies and will be released to the public at a later date. Documents proving this FDA extortion racket are included here.

How the FDA extorts money from nutritional supplement companies

The FDA extortion racket works like this: FDA employees use keyword-scanning software to scan the web pages of natural health product and supplement companies, searching for terms like cancer, cures, treatment, remedies and other "forbidden" words. FDA employees then review the discovered pages to determine if they contain any words that might inform consumers of the health benefits of the nutritional products. FDA employees also look for links that might point web users to scientific articles from peer-reviewed medical journals that further explain the health benefits of specific foods, supplements or nutrients.
When offending words or links are found by the FDA, their extortion team goes into full swing. First, they contact the company and warn them to remove all information and links from their websites. This is the most important step from the FDA’s standpoint, because by doing this, they can keep the health-conscious public in a state of nutritional ignorance about the scientifically-supported healing properties of natural supplements. Cherry products, for example, cannot link to scientific articles explaining the simple biological fact that cherries ease inflammation in human beings. Such links are considered "drug claims" by the FDA.
NaturalNews has even learned that companies are now being targeted for simply posting customer testimonials, even when those testimonials make absolutely no health claims. FDA and FTC agents are now threatening the owners of such companies with imprisonment if they do not immediately remove all customer testimonials from their websites and marketing materials.
If the company being targeted for extortion refuses to fully comply with the FDA’s requests to remove all educational information from their website, the FDA then escalates the extortion tactics by threatening the company principals with arrest and seizure unless they agree to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to top FDA contractors and sign a "consent decree" where the company "admits" to committing various crimes (see below). This consent decree is a blatant violation of the Constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, of course, and it violates numerous sections of the Bill of Rights (Amendments #1 and #5, at the very least).
The FDA employees or contractors receiving the extorted money, it is claimed, are being paid to "review web pages" to make sure they don’t contain anything that might inform consumers about the scientifically-validated benefits of the health products being sold. FDA extortion agreements specify that FDA employees should be paid the rate of $100 per hour, with no limit on the number of hours they may bill the company for. The extortion agreement also requires companies to pay for all the following:
• $100 per hour for the travel time of FDA employees.
• Hotel rooms for FDA employees.
• Storage fees for all products seized by the FDA.
The same agreement also requires the company to comply with FDA demands by never placing any links or "illegal" information on its website, where "illegal" means anything that offers an accurate description of the health benefits offered by natural health products.

The Consent Decree

Part of the FDA’s strategy for oppression and control is to force targeted companies to sign a "consent decree" where they admit to crimes they never committed. NaturalNews obtained a copy of a public court document the FruitFast company was forced to sign due to FDA threats and extortion tactics.
You can view this document yourself at: http://www.NaturalNews.com/investigatio…
This document requires the FruitFast company to admit to crimes it did not commit; namely:
"Violating the Act, by introducing or delivering for introduction, or causing to be introduced or delivered for introduction, into interstate commerce articles of drug that are misbranded within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. SS 352(f)(1)."
What "drugs" did the FruitFast company introduce that were "misbranded?" Cherries, it turns out. Cherry juice concentrate was being sold with the accurate statement that it helped eliminate gout (which it does). This, according to the FDA, was enough to magically transform cherry juice into an "unapproved drug" and cause it to be "misbranded."
It also requires targeted companies to contractually agree that they have:
"…removed all claims from Defendants’ product labels, labeling, promotional materials, websites owned or controlled by Defendants, and in any other media that cause that product to be a drug and/or contain unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act; and
(ii) removed, from their product labels, labeling, promotional materials, and websites owned or controlled by Defendants, references to or endorsements of any other website that conveys information about Defendants’ products that cause those products to be a drug and/or contain unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act."
This means, of course, that these companies can no longer even LINK to other websites, including websites of scientific journals that discuss the proven health benefits of such natural products (foods, herbs, etc.)

The truth is now subject to FDA approval

Once a company removes all educational information and links from their website, they are then required to submit to draconian measures of "censorship enforcement" by the FDA. This is fully explained in this section of the FDA’s Consent Decree: (bolding added for emphasis)
Within ten (10) calendar days of FDA’s request for any labels, labeling, promotional materials, and/or downloaded copies (on CD-Rom) of any internet websites owned or controlled by Defendants or websites referenced by, endorsed, or adopted directly or indirectly by Defendants, Defendants shall submit a copy of the requested materials to FDA at the address specified in paragraph 19.
Within twenty (20) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants shall submit to FDA a certification of compliance, signed by each of the individually-named Defendants in this matter, each Defendant stating that he: (a) has personally reviewed all of Defendants’ product labels, labeling, promotional materials, and the internet websites referred to in paragraph 8 above; and (b) personally certifies that the product labels, labeling, promotional materials, and internet websites strictly comply with the requirements of the Act and its regulations and do not include unapproved or unauthorized claims that the products cure, mitigate, treat, prevent and/or reduce the risk of disease. Thereafter, Defendants shall submit certifications of compliance every three (3) months for a period of two (2) years.
Furthermore, the FDA then requires that the company being targeted by the extortion racket hire a person (called the "expert") to enforce all this censorship the company has agreed to.
As you’ll note in the language below, this "expert" must be paid $100 an hour, for an unlimited number of hours, to conduct surprise inspections of the company’s administrative offices, warehouses and fulfillment centers:
Within fourteen (14) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants shall retain an independent person or persons (the "expert")… who by reason of background, experience, education, and training is qualified to assess Defendants’ compliance with the Act, to review the claims Defendants make for all of their products on their product labels, labeling, promotional material, any internet websites owned or controlled by Defendants, including, but not limited to, the websites referred to in paragraph 8 above. At the conclusion of the expert’s review, the expert shall prepare a written report analyzing whether Defendants are operating in compliance with the Act and in particular, certify whether Defendants have omitted all claims from their product labels, labeling, promotional materials, websites owned or controlled by Defendants, and in any other media, that make any of their products drugs and/or constitute unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act. The expert shall also review Defendants’ product labels, labeling, promotional materials, and websites owned or controlled by Defendants to determine whether these include any references to or endorsements of any other websites that convey information about Defendants’ products that cause those products to be a drug and/or contain unapproved or unauthorized health claims within the meaning of the Act, and certify in the written report whether Defendants have omitted any such references or endorsements. The expert shall submit this report to FDA and Defendants within thirty-five (35) calendar days of the entry of this Decree. If the expert reports any violations of the Act, Defendants shall, within seven (7) calendar days of receipt of the report, correct those deviations, unless FDA notifies Defendants that a shorter time period is necessary.
In other words, this section requires the company being targeted to pay the "Expert" huge fees to make sure it doesn’t "illegally" link to other websites that might tell the truth about the health products in question.

FDA tyranny unleashed

So what happens if the company slips up and does something illegal like, let’s say, posting a clickable link to a science journal that discusses research citing the health benefits of cherries? As you’ll see below, there are no limits to the action the FDA can take in retribution, including the seizure of all company assets and the arrest of its principals.
Specifically, the Consent Decree forces company owners to agree to the following:
If, at any time after this Decree has been entered, FDA determines, based on the results of an inspection, the analyses of Defendants’ product labels, labeling, promotional materials, websites owned or controlled by Defendants, or websites referenced by, endorsed, or adopted directly or indirectly by Defendants that convey information about Defendants’ products, a report prepared by Defendants’ expert, or any other information, that additional corrective actions are necessary to achieve compliance with the Act, applicable regulations, or this Decree, FDA may, as and when it deems necessary, direct Defendants, in writing, to take one or more of the actions:
A. Cease manufacturing, processing, packing, labeling, holding, and/or distributing any article(s);
B. Submit additional reports or information to FDA;
C. Recall any article(s) at Defendants’ expense; or
D. Take any other reasonable corrective action(s) as FDA, in its discretion, deems necessary to bring Defendants and their products into compliance with the Act, applicable regulations, and this Decree.

Surprise inspections, secret police and non-stop persecution

Just to keep the targeted company in a state of constant fear (which is why I have labeled the FDA a terrorist organization), the FDA forces it to agree to surprise inspections where it must pay FDA "compliance officers" to rummage through their product shelves and paperwork, looking for evidence of non-compliance:
Duly authorized representatives of FDA shall be permitted, without prior notice and as and when FDA deems necessary, to make [surprise] inspections of Defendants’ facilities and, without prior notice, take any other measures necessary to monitor and ensure continuing compliance with the terms of this Decree. During such inspections, FDA representatives shall be permitted prompt access to buildings, equipment, in-process and finished materials, containers, labeling and other materials therein; to take photographs and make video recordings; to take samples of Defendants’ finished and unfinished materials and products, containers, labels, labeling, and other promotional materials; and to examine and copy all records relating to the receipt, manufacture, processing, packing, labeling, promoting, holding, and distribution of any and all Defendants’ products in order to ensure continuing compliance with the terms of this Decree. The inspections shall be permitted upon presentation of a copy of this Decree and appropriate credentials. The inspection authority granted by this Decree is separate from, and in addition to, the authority to conduct inspections under the Act, 21 U.S.C. §374.
And just to make sure the company is further driven into bankruptcy, the FDA requires them to PAY for all these surprise "compliance" investigations! As stated in the Consent Decree:
Defendants shall reimburse FDA for the costs of all FDA inspections, investigations, supervision, reviews, examinations, and analyses specified in this Decree or that FDA deems necessary to evaluate Defendants’ compliance with this Decree. The costs of such inspections shall be borne by Defendants at the prevailing rates in effect at the time the costs are incurred. As of the date that this Decree is signed by the parties, these rates are: $78.09 per hour and fraction thereof per representative for inspection work; $93.61 per hour or fraction thereof per representative for analytical or review work; $0.485 per mile for travel expenses by automobile; government rate or the equivalent for travel by air or other means; and the published government per diem rate or the equivalent for the areas in which the inspections are performed per-day, per-representative for subsistence expenses, where necessary. In the event that the standard rates applicable to FDA supervision of court-ordered compliance are modified, these rates shall be increased or decreased without further order of the Court."
Are you getting the picture here? The FDA can simply show up on a "surprise" inspection, bring ten FDA agents, bill the company for thousands of hours, and bankrupt the company while padding its own pockets.
Doesn’t this sound a lot like the King’s Consent Decree against the American colonies? The FDA’s agreement reads amazingly like a document a King might force his subjects to sign as he’s taking over their land and gold, imprisoning them in his kingdom.
But it gets better: The FDA also requires the Defendants to reveal all sorts of details about their business operations:
"Within ten (10) calendar days of entry of this Decree, Defendants shall provide FDA a list of all domain names and IP addresses they use to market or describe any product, regardless of whether such sites mention specific products Defendants sell.
Defendants shall notify the District Director, FDA Detroit District Office, in writing at least fifteen (15) calendar days before any change in ownership, character, or name of its business.
If Defendants fail to comply with any of the provisions of this Decree, including any time frame imposed by this Decree, then, on motion of the United States in this proceeding, Defendants Brownwood Acres and/or Cherry Capital shall pay to the United States of America the sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) in liquidated damages per violation per day so long as such violation continues.
Should the United States bring, and prevail in, a contempt action to enforce the terms of this Decree, Defendants shall, in addition to other remedies, reimburse the United States for its attorneys* fees, investigational expenses, expert witness fees, travel expenses incurred by attorneys and witnesses, and administrative court costs relating to such contempt proceedings.
And finally, just to make sure everybody knows who’s in charge, here’s what the agreement says about final judgment:
All decisions specified in this Decree shall be vested in the discretion of FDA and shall be final.
In other words, the FDA is the King. It is above the law. It answers to no one but itself.
Welcome to the United States of Tyranny, FDA style.
The full text of the FDA’s agreement, including the names of the top FDA criminals who signed it, is included at the end of this article.

This brand of tyranny is reserved for health supplement companies

While the FDA gives drug companies a free pass of easy approval for dangerous drugs, this Consent Decree is the kind of treatment it slams down upon health product companies. As you can see from the text in the decree, above, this is a document of outright tyranny and oppression.
Any company signing this document gives the FDA all the tools it needs to drive that company completely out of business. Sadly, dozens of companies have signed this in just the last year. The FDA’s reign of terror is working. It’s putting health companies out of business and forcing them to censor themselves. It even forces them to remove all web links to information sources like NaturalNews.com or peer-reviewed science journals.
This is all part of the FDA’s campaign of health illiteracy — a war of disinformation being waged against the American people. It is a secret war being fought out of the view of the mainstream media (which refuses to report this story) and far from the scrutiny of the U.S. Dept. of Justice (which doesn’t care about the real tyrants running loose in this country).
As I have often stated here on NaturalNews.com, the FDA is an out-of-control, rogue agency engaged in acts of terrorism against the American people. By itself, it is negligent in the deaths of tens of millions of Americans, and it has taken it upon itself to increase the body count by making sure consumers have zero access to honest, truthful, scientifically-validated information about the healing properties of health supplements.
The FDA, by any account, is a much greater threat to the security and safety of the American people than any terrorist group, and if the U.S. really wanted to fight terror and tyranny, it would start by arresting top FDA officials at gunpoint. Those targeted for arrest and prosecution should also include the lawyers and paper pushers involved in this very agreement (see their names on the legal documents at the end of this article).
In my view, these people are the real criminals at work here. They are the masterminds of this campaign of extortion and terror being leveled against health companies by the rogue U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Much like Hitler’s top generals, they play an important role in the mass disinformation that’s resulting in the needless death of millions of people. By any account, they are all guilty of crimes against humanity and should be arrested and prosecuted as such. We should all be so fortunate to live to the day where we can see these white-collar criminals behind bars, perhaps sharing their jail cells with other war criminals from the Bush Administration.

Sign this or you’ll be arrested

What you haven’t yet seen in all this is the barrage of threats leveled against companies if they don’t sign this Consent Decree! Company executives receive both written and verbal threats from top FDA "enforcement officers" who claim they will "throw you in prison" if you don’t sign the agreement.
Every major health trade show hosts an FDA compliance officer (much like a Nazi Gestapo officer) whose job it is to walk the show floor and threaten companies into compliance. This includes shows like Expo West and Expo East, where show organizers also serve as de facto FDA agents themselves, barring the participation of exhibitors who dare to tell the truth about their natural products. This smacks of KGB secret police operations in the former Soviet Union. But secret FDA police are now a reality in the United States of America.
NaturalNews has learned of numerous verbal threats from FDA compliance officers directed at health supplement companies during trade shows, including threats to "put you out of business," "throw you in prison" or "take every last dollar you’ve ever earned."
FDA compliance officers are the foot soldiers of the agency’s war against the truth. They seek out any health claim that might inform consumers about the properties of nutritional supplements, then they work to squash such statements before they become too well known. In essence, they are censorship officers who enforce nutritional illiteracy and prevent knowledge from being shared.
As such, they are acting not merely as secret police on a mission to destroy small American businesses; they are actually agents of disinformation, bent on destroying knowledge and enforcing a system of mandatory ignorance. This is entirely consistent with the FDA’s history of ordering the destruction of recipe books that promoted the use of the natural herb stevia, among many other examples of information suppression.

The FDA’s campaign of health illiteracy and enforced ignorance

It is the FDA’s position that there is no such thing as any food, beverage, supplement or herb that has any health benefit whatsoever. Merely making such a claim instantly qualifies your product as a "new and unapproved drug," according to the FDA.
Officially, the FDA claims all health products are inert and have no properties other than their macronutrients (fiber, carbohydrates, protein, etc.).
There is only one class of substances that have any biological effect on the human body, the FDA claims: Pharmaceuticals. Only those patented, synthetic chemicals are allowed to be described as having benefits to human health.
This convenient position is entirely consistent with the protection of the profits of drug companies. It’s no coincidence that the drug companies fund the FDA through "user fees," and most FDA employees are dependent on drug company money… except, of course, those FDA people earning their living by extorting millions of dollars from health product companies.
The upshot of the FDA’s campaign against health supplements is that most of the American people remain nutritionally illiterate, oblivious to the scientifically-validated health benefits offered by tens of thousands of different nutrients, plants, supplements and products. To say that zinc speeds healing, or that vitamin D prevents cancer, or that resveratrol lowers high cholesterol is common sense in the scientific community, but it’s a crime in the eyes of the FDA.

It’s time to stop the FDA’s reign of terror over health supplements

It is time to end the FDA’s extortion racket, restore Free Speech rights to health supplements, and bring the organized crime kingpins at the FDA to justice.
NaturalNews is organizing a list of companies who wish to help fund legal action against the FDA. We intend to take part in a lawsuit against the FDA that would reign in the FDA’s control over nutritional supplements and defend health freedoms for American consumers.
To do this, we need to gather information from those companies who are willing to help fund this legal action, which may cost several hundred thousand dollars. If you represent a company willing to take part in this legal action against the FDA, contact us now at StopTheFDA@naturalnews.com
Simply email us your name and contact phone number. We’ll contact you to continue the conversation. Any information sent to us is kept strictly confidential. We will refuse to turn over such information even with a court order.
With enough support from the natural products community, we will take part in the reporting and grassroots organization of this legal action.

We must stop the FDA now

It is the belief of NaturalNews that the FDA is being run as a system of organized crime, using the exact same extortion tactics as the Mob. Through intimidation, censorship and threats of imprisonment, the FDA is right now extorting tens of millions of dollars from the very same health supplement companies you depend on to bring you lifesaving, disease-reversing products.
Even worse, the FDA is getting away with it. Backed by the threat of imprisonment and the ability to conduct armed raids against health product companies (see the history of armed FDA raids against vitamin companies here: http://www.naturalnews.com/021791.html ), the FDA is able to overpower health product companies when they stand alone.
The industry must band together if it hopes to defend itself against this tyranny. A lone villager cannot defend himself against a band of marauders, but an organized and well-defended band of villagers can fight off attackers many times their size. If it wishes to survive, the natural products industry must band together and defend itself against the FDA. It must take back its right to tell the truth about health supplements, and it must forever banish censorship and ignorance from the health products marketplace.
The FDA will not stop its reign of terror, you see, until every health supplement companies is silenced, every company founder is imprisoned and every consumer is enslaved in a state of outright nutritional illiteracy. They will seize products and let them rot in warehouses; they’ll recruit armed law enforcement personnel to conduct SWAT-style raids on vitamin shops; they’ll extort millions of dollars from health companies and pocket the profits; and they’ll do it all while burning taxpayer dollars and claiming they’re working to "protect" consumers from natural health products like cherry juice concentrate, which is of course so incredibly dangerous that we need an entire government agency just to make sure we don’t find out it might ease arthritis inflammation.

What you can do right now to help halt the FDA’s reign of terror

As a consumer, you can use your voice to help stop the FDA from destroying the natural products marketplace. Simply go to www.ReformFDA.org and sign the petition there.
It’s sponsored by the American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF), an organization fighting to end the FDA’s tyrannical rule over the health of the American people.
Sign that petition and spread the word: NaturalNews and the AAHF are working together to bring back honesty, freedom and free speech to the health supplements industry, and we need your help to get it done.
You can also protest the FDA with your Congressperson or Senator. Contact them and insist that they support efforts to end the reign of FDA tyranny and reestablish Free Speech rights for nutritional supplement companies.
Notably, Rep. Ron Paul has sponsored the Health Freedom Protection Act, which you can read here: http://www.StopFDACensorship.org

Grab your cameras, folks

Finally, NaturalNews urges those in the natural health community to go out and buy video cameras and still cameras and start snapping photos of rogue FDA agents arresting people, seizing products, accepting bribes or other outrageous acts. We cannot simply lie down and let the FDA march in to our company warehouses and seize products. One video can change the world. It’s up to you to get that video recorded and get it to us here at NaturalNews. Use our feedback form to contact us: www.NaturalNews.com/feedback.html
We’ve also opened up an audio tips line, where FDA employees who wish to leak information to NaturalNews can anonymously call us and leave a message: (323) 924-1664
With your help, we will soon start publishing videos and photos showing FDA agents directly engaged in acts of tyranny against health companies. And for those who’d like to earn some extra money snapping photos, we’re willing to pay you for photos of FDA "compliance officers" walking trade show floors where they threaten companies in person. Contact us for details if you’re a photographer with a long lens who would like to start earning money snapping photos of FDA agents engaged in their dirty work.
It’s time to shed light on the real actions of the FDA. We can no longer sit back and allow this criminal organization to operate in secret. But grabbing the public’s attention all comes down to getting this on video. This is the YouTube era. If it’s not on video, it doesn’t exist. But if it’s on video, we can likely get it on mainstream news. (I can see it now: the FDA raids a warehouse and handcuffs the screaming, crying business owner. And why? Because their bottle said, "Eases inflammation." The public won’t stand for it.)
The FDA, of course, will have its own people doing the same thing to people like me. They’re trying to catch us eating at McDonald’s or going through the local pharmacy drive-thru. All I can say about that is they’ll be waiting a long, long time to see that day!
Please forward this story to everyone you know. We the People must either prevail in this fight for our freedom, or we will all end up illiterate, imprisoned or silenced. The FDA will take away your rights, your speech and your health, and it will laugh all the way to the bank while it steals your hard-earned money. It will break every law, ignore every court order and commit every crime necessary to bring health companies into line… UNLESS we fight back and do our part to end this grave threat to our health, safety and freedoms.
The FDA is the enemy of the People. It is a criminal organization bent on destroying American freedoms and consumer health. It operates with impunity, using its own secret compliance officers, wreaking death and destruction across our nation like a dark plague unleashed. If we hope to ever regain our health, our freedoms and the basic human right to tell the truth about the healing properties of simple foods, then we must bring this agency to justice and prosecute its mob bosses for their many crimes against the People.
It is time to stand up for your health freedoms, or lose them forever. Please join me in this courageous stand against tyranny and oppression.
- Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, editor of NaturalNews.com

 

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear Skin.

We live in tough times.

In the US politicians just took $700 billion of tax payers’ money and transferred it to their friends in the banking sector. And eventually we as tax payers have to pick up the bill. Not directly, but via raised taxes and runaway inflation that eats away our savings. And because we live in a globalized economy this affects not only the people in the US but all over the world. Even me, sitting at the other side of the world.

Actually it’s not the politicians who are to blame, but it’s the rich bankers behind the scenes. The crooks who own and run the Federal Reserve and other central banks in the world. And unfortunately $700 billion is not the end of the story. It was just the first installment and many more probably follows.

Anyway, I don’t want to moan and whine about the situation. Just to say that we’ve been dealt a tough hand. One we cannot do much about - at least not in short-term. But there’s no need to get stressed over the situation and hence make it more difficult to cure your acne.

So let’s talk about making the best of the situation.

Napoleon Hill writes that each adversary carries within a seed of an equivalent or a greater opportunity. It’s the old silver lining on a cloud thing. And I do believe it. Often we just cannot see the silver lining while we go through the tough times. Still, it’s there, and looking back it’s often easy to see.

So if money is tighter perhaps it gives us an opportunity to appreciate other aspects of life. To help us to discover that most important things in life don’t revolve around money. That money doesn’t make us happy, and that we don’t need money to be happy.

Of course I realize the practicalities of the world. I like what’s called practical spirituality. Money does make life easier, and having to constantly worry about money makes life difficult.

But at the end of the day, it’s not the money or your situation that determines your happiness. It’s what you think of them.

It’s not the lack of money that stresses you out, it’s the worrying you do over it. Worrying and stressing over paying your bills and making the ends meet.

Now you may say ‘what’s the difference?’. Lack of money causes those worries, therefore lack of money is what causes my stress and unhappiness.

Though it may seem like that, in reality that’s not the case.

Your financial situation is what’s called external circumstance and worrying over it is an internal representation of it. You may not always control your external circumstances but you always have total and absolute control over your internal representations; what you think of the external circumstances and what they mean to you.

Most people don’t exercise this control. That’s why it seems to them that external circumstances dictate their happiness. But whether you exercise this control or not doesn’t mean that it’s not there. You have the power over your emotional state (how you feel). You just have to learn how to use that power. Yes, it does take some work and discipline, but it’s worth it.

Let me share with you an experience that happened to me over the weekend.

I watched two documentaries. One was The Money Masters: How International Bankers Gained Control of America (click the link to watch). Money Masters shows how extremely wealthy and powerful bankers control and manipulate the economies in the US and pretty much in every other country. They do this through the central banks by controlling the amount of money in circulation, and that way causing economic booms and busts (depressions) to further their causes.

The other one was Endgame: The Blueprint for Global Enslavement (click the link to watch). Endgame is a bit wilder story of how ‘the elite’ wants to control the world, and how they believe themselves to be ’super humans’ with God-given right to control ‘lesser men’.

After I watched these documentaries I was quite shocked. I know men do ‘evil’ things, but these really take it to the next level. These really shook me to the core. In fact I was so shocked I started feeling physically bad.

Now are these documentaries telling the truth? I don’t know. They present quite a compelling case, but in the end I just don’t know. But what matters more (in my case) is what I believe about them.

After watching them I bought into their story. Many pieces of the puzzle clicked after watching them. And that story wasn’t bright. No bright clouds and happy sunshine. It made me downright depressed for few hours.

Then I started really thinking. And now we come to the point that’s relevant to you and your situation also.

I asked myself ‘what changed?’, I was happy yesterday but deeply depressed now. My situation hadn’t changed a bit. But my beliefs had changed. I bought into the dark and oppressing story presented in these documentaries.

So I did some belief work. I cleared out lot of the negative stuff that caused me to focus on the negative aspects. After that I could breathe easier and felt happier again.

The point of the story is that I didn’t choose my beliefs based on ‘reality’; what’s true and what’s not. I chose them based on what works, what makes me happy.

Now I don’t really know if there is some mysterious elite who wants to enslave me. But I do know that believing there is won’t serve me at all. It would just plunge me into depression and take away my power. In that state it would be hard to get any work done, and as a result my business would suffer even more than it already has (because of this financial crisis). So not a good belief to have.

I’d rather deal with the situation at hand now, and not make it any worse by imagining things that probably will never happen. And if they do, I will deal with them then. In the meanwhile I remain as happy as possible.

So in the same way you shouldn’t make the situation any worse by imagining how you cannot pay your bill or can’t make the ends meet. You will, you always have and you always will have.

It you have it tough financially now, be practical about it. Work the numbers on paper and budget your money. Then you know that, as long as you follow your budget, you will make the ends meet. So you can stop worrying over it.

Next focus on making the best of what you’ve got. Ask yourself how can I make the best of the situation. Questions direct your focus; your focus directs your emotions and combined they create your reality.

Questions are really powerful. Use them to help you instead of shooting yourself on the foot. Don’t ask disempowering questions like ‘how come this always happens to me’. Ask empowering questions like ‘how can I make the best of this’ or ‘how can I make extra income in this situation’ or ‘how can I turn this around’.

When you ask those questions, you get answers that fit your situation perfectly.

Perhaps you can use these times to connect and get closer to your family and loved ones. Perhaps you can sit silently and do some self-improvement work and come closer to discovering your true nature, and how you can live happily even with less money.

Finally I want to say that it’s the journey, not where you are right now, that makes you happy. Starting at a lower point and making progress by working upwards makes you far happier than simply staying still at a higher point.

Be well.

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear Skin.

Does it feel like your family is against you getting clear?

Of course I don’t mean that they literally would want you to have acne. But that they don’t seem to get what you have to do to get clear. And because of that discourage you, or at least do not support you. Because they don’t understand natural health they think you are nuts eating the way you do.

Perhaps these people are your parents, or your loved ones, and this situation causes tension in your relationship.

How do you live in such a situation? That was the question Alissa emailed me.

Right off the bat I have to say that I can’t speak from my own experience. I have lived on my own for more than 10 years and didn’t have to go through that. Plus I’m lucky to be blessed with a mother who respects my decisions and doesn’t want to interfere with my life - unless I ask for her advice.

Still, I think I can offer some helpful advice. And hopefully you can pitch in also. Use the comment field to share your own experience and advice.

OK, let’s get back to Alissa’s situation. In her case it was her father who was unsupportive. I’m going to write this to her situation (just because it makes referring to the ‘other side’ easier - I can just use ‘he/him’ instead of a more vague term ‘them’).

First, whatever you do, don’t fight him. This is the most important advice I can give.

We, as humans, always do what we perceive to be the right thing - given our beliefs, experiences, values and ethics. Given his view of the world he does what he thinks is the best. Deep down he probably wants to help you.

He probably thinks you put yourself through unnecessary struggle and suffering for nothing. (Most people still believe doctors can fix health problems.)

Remember that good intentions coupled with bad information is a dangerous combination. This is just one example of it.

Give that, please don’t fight or try to argue with him. It probably won’t do you any good, and most likely just upsets him and causes him to just argue back harder.

If I were in your shoes I’d try to talk to him.

First I would start by understanding his concern over me and thank him for it.

Then I would tell him that I’ve already been to the dermatologists many times (as you probably have), and say that it hasn’t helped. Despite all those visits and all the medicine I’ve taken, I still have acne.

Then, given that be still believes in doctors and that they can help, I would work on that angle. I would say that latest research indicates that diet is linked to acne. Then I would probably tell a little white lie. Cook up a story of a friend or a friend of a friend (someone your father doesn’t know of) who went to this dermatologist who treats their patients with diet modifications. And that your friend, or friend of a friend, cured his/her acne following the doctor’s advice.

Now I don’t really advocate lying or cheating. But framing your message so that it fits into your father’s existing belief system, or the way he sees the world, makes it easier for him to accept. And probably the upside of maintaining harmony in your family outweighs the downside of a harmless white lie.

Then I would tell him again that I appreciate his concern, and that doing this is really important to you. That you really believe this is going to get you over your acne. And finally that it is really important to you that he supports you. It’s not important that he agrees with your choices, but that at least he would respect them and support you.

Finally, if necessary, I would point out that many respectable doctors and researchers say that diet and lifestyle are the major causes of most diseases. Two excellent books on the subject are The China Study by Colin Campbell, PhD  and Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

Again since he believes in doctors and scientists I would use their books, rather than pointing it to my site or my books, since I lack the formal credibility indicators before or after my name.

So instead of fighting him I would try to talk to him calmly and respect the concern he has over you.

If you are or have been in a similar situation, I would really appreciate if you would share your experiences and help Alissa and other’s in a similar situation.

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin

Have you ever wondered what acne ads would look like if they would have to reflect the real world results and perceptions people get?

I did, and I’m about to show you.

I got this crazy idea while I was browsing ‘Bad medicine’ and ‘Fun with propaganda‘ contests at Worth 1000.

So for inspiration I picked few common acne ads, and started playing with Photoshop.

Here’s what I came up with.

And you know, this is just for fun and giggles. The ads I chose are just for inspiration. This does not reflect the quality of these fine products or the results their customers get. I just used them for inspiration to come up with alternative ads that reflect the experiences I hear acne victims generally have with general acne products.

OK, our first ad comes to us from IQ Derma.

Based on the feedback I get from acne victims and read at acne forums I made an ad for a fictitious ‘My cool cream’ acne product.

 

The next ad comes from Murad.

And using it as an inspiration I came up with an ad for ‘My cool pills’ acne treatment product.

 

The third ad comes again from IQ Derma.

Few minutes in Photoshop and we have a winner ad for ‘Wonder tubes’.

 

And for those with severe acne, here’s something that never fail. And this ad is 100% true.

I mean, just look at these success stories.

 

Ok, that’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed looking at the ads as much as I did making them.

—
Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin
—

Few days ago Dobre emailed me asking about alkaline water.

I recently started doing a little research on the effect of alkaline/acidic water on acne and health in general, and to be honest, I`m really amazed at what I found.
The reason I`m writing this email now, is because I want to know your opinion on the subject, and maybe you could do a blog-post-response something like that, to let people know if this is a scam or it may help.

As you may guess from the title I don’t share her enthusiasm.

This looks just like the other health fantasies and miracle cures that plaque the natural health field.

According to promoters alkaline water is supposed to:

• Bring the body back to healthy alkaline state
• Detoxify the body
• Hydrate you better than normal water
• Act as an antioxidant
• And pretty much cure every ill that has plagued humanity aside from global warming - but hold on that one will probably be added to the list also.

And it’s as simple as drinking water treated with their special machine or drops.

So excuse me if I’m little skeptical.

I couldn’t find any independent verification to these claims. Most positive comments come from people selling these machines and drops. And many of their claims would pass as science fiction. Most credible scientists laugh at them.

I know scientists aren’t always the best source when it comes to new developments in the health field. Energy healing and mind over matter are just few examples. Still the evidence against these claims is staggering.

Let’s look at alkalizing the body first.

Most of this acid/alkaline theory is complete nonsense. The body controls the pH of blood very carefully. It has to because even minor variations would be dangerous or even lethal. It has very good mechanisms for doing this.

Breathing is the primary mechanism for this. As a result of cellular metabolism you develop acidic wastes. Breathing out removes this waste through the lungs. The body also has buffers of alkaline and acids minerals that it uses to maintain proper pH. Any excess acid or alkalinity will be removed via kidneys.

This system works very well and you do not want to mess it up by trying to over-alkalize your body.

Decades of eating acidic and unhealthy foods do degrade the body, and it’s forced to store these acids or toxins into your tissues. Simply because it cannot eliminate them quickly enough. The only thing you have to do is to stop eating these. Instead eat healthier foods.

I don’t believe alkaline water does anything to remove these acidic wastes. Simply because alkaline water stops being alkaline the moment it hits your stomach. Stomach acids are highly acidic and mildly alkaline water does nothing to neutralize them.

And you wouldn’t even want that. Because your stomach needs to be acidic for digesting foods.

When you drink alkaline water the stomach responds by producing more stomach acid to maintain acidity. Due to nutritional deficiencies most people have far too little stomach acid to begin with. Further depleting it simply causes more digestive problems.

Another detox miracle

It seems that almost every week we discover a new miracle substance or process and easily, gently and thoroughly detoxes or flushes toxins out of your body.

They are all based on delusional fantasies about detoxing and how it works. They are always based on the idea  that something external is capable of removing poisons from the body. Somehow these inert substances spring into life when they come in contact with toxins and shovel them out of the body when you just kick back and relax.

Last time I checked I had to use the power within my body to put them into my mouth. I have yet to discover a substance that would on its own spring into my mouth. They are no more capable of detoxing your body as they are getting into your mouth on their own.

It’s always the body that detoxes and nothing external can affect the process.

Yes the body uses water to dilute toxins and then eliminate them. But you don’t need alkaline water for that. Simple, pure water works the best.

Antioxidant potential

Alkaline water is also claimed to act as an antioxidant.

The ‘proof’ of this is that oxygen reduction potential (ORP) of alkaline water is much better than normal water. They have nice looking meters to show you this is the case. ORP means the potential to reduce oxygenation (for example rusting or the process that turns cut apple brown).

I just haven’t seen any evidence that this ORP would have an antioxidant effect in the body. Further when you consider that real antioxidants (such as oranges) sometimes have positive and sometimes negative ORP values (alkaline water has negative ORP that that is claimed to be the key to antioxidant power). So if real antioxidants sometimes contradict this ORP claim I wouldn’t put much weight on it.

The hydration claim seems equally bogus.

The claim goes that alkaline water is restructured. They say normal water has clusters with 10 to 12 molecules. Restructuring reduces the cluster size down to 5 or 6 molecules. These smaller clusters are said to be able to penetrate cell walls better and thus hydrate you better.

Of course they forget the fact that water enters cells one molecule at time. So the cluster size is irrelevant to the hydrating power. There’s more to this story, and at the end of the post I’ll provide few references for you to check out if you are interested.

What about all the people alkaline water healed

The most impressing thing in the sites selling machines that alkalize water are the testimonials from normal people and doctors. So many people seem to have been cured from various illnesses by drinking alkaline water.

So it must be the real deal - right?

Well, the human mind is an interesting system. Once you’ve bought into something you’ll do everything to prove you are right. That’s simply how the human mind and our beliefs work.

So any potential health benefit is immediately attributed to alkaline water. Even though there could be many explanations to it.

Most people are dehydrated anyway and that leads to many illnesses. Simply drinking more water can ‘cure’ people. They could have also become more health conscious and change their diet and lifestyles.

Then there’s the placebo effect.

As humans we are quite capable of imagining all the evidence we require to convince us that we and our beliefs are correct.

I’m not saying this is necessarily the case. I’m just saying that the testimonials are not really credible proof that something works. Neither, or I should say especially so, is not discussion at curezone.com. Curezone is perhaps the best source of health fantasies on this planet.

So in conclusion I’m highly skeptical that alkaline water would have any healing power over normal, pure water. It may, but given that the promoters make such ridiculous claims and have no credible proof to back it up, I remain highly skeptical, and would rather use the $1000+ those machines cost to something else.

Until proven wrong, use this as a rule of thumb.

Anytime you see anything that promises to fix or heal you without you having to change your diet or lifestyle, it’s probably not worth your time or money.

—

Clear for Life - The Fun, Easy and Delicious Solution to Permanently Clear
Skin

—

Here are few resource to check out regarding alkaline water:

“Ionized” and alkaline water - snake oil on tap: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html
Does Alkaline Water Promote Health? by Dr. Weil: http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA98873
Ask Alice: Alkaline water - Is it better for your body?: http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/4067.html
ACID OR ALKALINE? by Dr. Gabe Mirkin: http://www.drmirkin.com/nutrition/1603.html

 

UPDATE

After looking into the matter a bit more it seems that ‘alkaline’ water might have antioxidant properties.

I found few studies from Asia that indicates that alkaline water could protect against oxidative stress.

Still, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions from abstracts of few studies. It’s too easy to rig the studies to show what you want. Plus from the abstracts it wasn’t clear whether the studies were human or in vitro (in the test tube or petri dish).

So it’s possible alkaline water has antioxidant properties.

If you are interested of looking at the papers here are few links:

• The mechanism of the enhanced antioxidant effects against superoxide anion radicals of reduced water produced by electrolysis.
• Electrolyzed-reduced water scavenges active oxygen species and protects DNA from oxidative damage.
• Reduced hemodialysis-induced oxidative stress in end-stage renal disease patients by electrolyzed reduced water.

Here’s an acne cure you haven’t heard of.

There’s a brand of condoms in Cambodia that has lubricant that seems to help with acne.

Telegraph newspaper in the UK reports:

Number One Plus, a water-based lubricant produced by health organisation Population Services International (PSI), is an excellent cure for acne, 29-year-old vendor Tep Kemyoeurn told news agencies.

Apparently Cambodian women have been applying lubricant from these condoms on their faces and seeing their pimples vanish in few days.

Whoever came up with that? I have no idea.

My guess is that the lubricant contains antibacterial or similar substance that kills bacteria and hence ‘cures’ acne.

You can read the full Telegraph story here: Condom lubricant cures acne

If you are not getting any because of acne, now you have a good reason to buy condoms. So it at least looks like you have a sex life : )

And who knows, maybe these things do work, and you could start using condoms for what they were made of. Despite this seeming dual purpose, I don’t recommend using the condom you used for sex on you face - or vice versa.

Do use different condoms.

OK, enough of stupid jokes.

Have a great day, and DO buy Clear for Life (just had to work that in).