health

10 surprising dangers of vitamins and supplements

Don't assume they are safe because they are 'all natural'

Consumer Reports magazine: September 2012

More than half of American adults take vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other nutritional supplements. Some of those products aren’t especially helpful, readers told us in a recent survey, but that aside, don’t assume they’re safe because they’re “all natural.” They may be neither. Here are 10 hazards that we’ve distilled from interviews with experts, published research, and our own analysis of reports of serious adverse events submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, which we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Read and be warned.

1. Supplements are not risk-free

More than 6,300 reports of serious adverse events associated with dietary supplements, including vitamins and herbs, streamed into the FDA from supplement companies, consumers, health-care providers, and others between 2007 and mid-April of 2012. The reports by themselves don’t prove the supplements caused the problems, but the raw numbers are cause for some concern. Symptoms included signs of heart, kidney, or liver problems, aches, allergic reactions, fatigue, nausea, pains, and vomiting.

The reports described more than 10,300 serious outcomes (some included more than one), including 115 deaths and more than 2,100 hospitalizations, 1,000 serious injuries or illnesses, 900 emergency-room visits, and some 4,000 other important medical events.

The FDA gets far more reports about serious problems with prescription medication than about supplements. But there’s a big difference between the two, notes Pieter Cohen, M.D., an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts with a special interest in supplements. “These powerful medications with powerful side effects are actually saving lives when used appropriately,” he says of prescription drugs. “But when healthy consumers use supplements, there’s rarely, if ever, a powerful lifesaving effect.”

The FDA suspects most supplement problems never come to its attention, says Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., director of the agency’s Division of Dietary Supplement Programs. But those that do are still useful because they can raise red flags about a developing problem. For instance, last year the agency noted seven reports of serious health problems regarding consumers who took Soladek vitamin solution, marketed by Indo Pharma of the Dominican Republic. When the FDA learned that tested samples contained vitamins A and D at concentrations many times the recommended daily allowances, it issued a consumer warning.

Why not simply order a problem product off the market? Current laws make that so difficult for the FDA that to date it has banned only one ingredient, ephedrine alkaloids. That effort dragged on for a decade, during which ephedra weight-loss products were implicated in thousands of adverse events, including deaths.

Type the name of the supplement you’re interested in into the search box at www.fda.gov to see whether it has been subject to warnings, alerts, or voluntary recalls. If you suspect you’re having a bad reaction to a supplement, tell your doctor. You can also report your problem to the FDA at 800-332-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

2. Some supplements are really prescription drugs

Fabricant has said that dietary supplements spiked with prescription drugs are “the largest threat” to consumer safety. Since 2008 there have been recalls of more than 400 such products, mostly those marketed for bodybuilding, sexual enhancement, and weight loss, according to the FDA.

We’ve seen many recalled products that have contained the same or similar active ingredients as prescription drugs, such as sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), and sibutramine (Meridia, a weight-loss drug that was withdrawn from the market in 2010 because of evidence that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes). Others contained synthetic steroids.

Those adulterated products can cause some of the same side effects and interactions that consumers may have been trying to avoid by choosing supplements over drugs. The FDA has received reports of strokes, acute liver injury, kidney failure, pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lung), and death associated with drug-tainted supplements.

“A number of the spiked sexual enhancement products claim to work within 20 to 45 minutes,” Fabricant said on the FDA’s website. “When we see a product that makes claims above and beyond what a dietary supplement might do—above supporting health—and within a time frame of a few minutes, it tips us off that we might have a spiked product.”

Slim down with diet and exercise. Build muscles by weight training. And consult a doctor if you need help in the bedroom, since it could indicate an underlying health problem. If you suspect you’ve purchased a product that is tainted with undeclared prescription drugs or steroids, send an e-mail about it to the FDA, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

3. You can overdose on vitamins and minerals

Unless your health-care provider tells you that you need more than 100 percent of the recommended daily intake of a particular nutrient, you probably don’t.

“It doesn’t make sense to me to take huge doses of vitamins and minerals unless there’s a diagnosed problem, because there is so little evidence that they do good and sometimes a possibility that they might do harm,” says Marion Nestle, M.P.H., Ph.D., a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University.

Megadoses of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K can cause problems, and even some standard doses may interfere with certain prescription medicine. Some people may experience adverse effects from too much calcium or iron.

The table below shows the maximum daily intake of key nutrients that the Institute of Medicine has determined is unlikely to pose a risk of adverse health effects. (The numbers apply to the general population, not to those who may need supplementation because of a medical condition.)

It’s surprisingly easy to overdo it. For instance, a 50-something woman who’s worried about her bones might eat a breakfast of Whole Grain Total cereal, which contains around 1,000 milligrams of calcium per serving, with a half-cup of skim milk (150 milligrams of calcium), and take a calcium supplement (500 milligrams) on top of her One-A-Day Menopause Formula multivitamin, which includes 300 milligrams of calcium. She’d already be coming close to the upper tolerable daily calcium limit of 2,000 milligrams.

Using information from the labels on the supplements and food you routinely consume, add up your total daily exposure to everything, and then check the related table to see whether you’re overdoing it. If your doctor says you need more of a specific nutrient than you can get from food (or sun exposure, in the case of vitamin D), a single-ingredient pill may be sufficient.

4. You can’t depend on warning labels

For one thing, the FDA doesn’t require them on supplements. There is an exception: Supplements that contain iron must warn about accidental overdosing and fatal poisoning in children.

But supplement makers can provide warning labels if they want to. We went shopping to see what warnings, if any, we would find on labels from 14 varieties of supplements. After looking at 233 products, all purchased online or in stores in the New York City metropolitan area in the spring of 2012, we can report that the only thing consistent about the labels is their lack of consistency.

Good news first: 100 percent of the 15 brands we bought that contained iron had the required warning.

Of the 233 labels we examined, most included only general warnings, such as those about not using the product during pregnancy or nursing, or about possible unspecified drug interactions. But specific warnings were rarer. Forty percent of labels warned people against taking the supplement if they had a medical condition, but only some cited an ailment, such as a bleeding disorder; 36 percent warned of possible adverse reactions; but only 13 percent warned of possible interactions with a specific drug or type of drug.

Five of our 20 samples of 5-HTP, a mood and sleep supplement, carried warnings about a possible interaction with drugs for Parkinson’s disease.

While it’s known that St. John’s wort can reduce the effectiveness of certain prescription drugs, including birth-control pills and blood thinners such as warfarin (Coumadin), only two of the 17 samples of it we purchased warned explicitly about those hazards. Ginkgo biloba can also interfere with blood thinners, but we saw a warning about that possible interaction on just one bottle of ginkgo.

“Some companies go with an overabundance of caution, and that’s certainly their right to do that,” says Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a leading industry trade group. “Other companies say, you know what, I’m not going to warn for possible things that I don’t believe are a serious concern to my consumers.”

Make sure that your doctor or pharmacist knows what supplements and prescription drugs you are taking or thinking of taking. You can also learn about interactions in our free “Guide: 100+ Commonly Used Supplements” (funded by a grant from the Airborne Cy Pres Fund).

5. None are proved to cure major diseases

If you’re surfing the Internet for dietary supplements and find a site that claims its products can diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent a disease, surf right off to another site. Such claims are off-limits to supplements, according to the FDA. “We’d like to see those things go away,” Fabricant says. “Those are a direct threat to public health.” Since 2007, the agency has sent dozens of warning letters to companies telling them to stop making those types of claims about their supplement products.

Earlier this year, for instance, the FDA sent a warning letter to BioAnue Laboratories of Rochelle, Ga., when these statements and others were spotted on websites: “Formula CX will reverse wasting disease,” and “Bovine cartilage stops tumor growth.” (The FDA said it’s still reviewing the company’s response. The president of BioAnue Laboratories told us it “complies with all U.S. laws.”)

Over the past decade, the FDA’s regulatory partner, the Federal Trade Commission, which monitors dietary-supplement advertising, has brought more than 100 legal challenges to claims about the effectiveness of supplements.

Research supplements at reliable government sites such as the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements, and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

6. Buy with caution from botánicas

These stores, which sell traditional medicinal plants and other artifacts for physical and spiritual healing, are a valued presence in Hispanic neighborhoods in many American cities. But when Consumer Reports sent a Spanish-speaking reporter on a shopping trip to several New York-area botánicas in 2011, he came away with incomplete information and bags of mystery herbs.

Our reporter asked for advice on how to treat type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and impotence, conditions that have effective conventional drug treatments. Healers offered a variety of instructions and herbs, but none volunteered relevant facts about possible side effects or the risky interactions that can occur when an herb is taken with a medication. And when we brought the herbs back to the office and checked the scientific evidence, we found that conclusive research on efficacy and safety was lacking for all of them.

Our investigation left us concerned about product quality and identity at the shops. And experts we consulted suggested that the supply chain used by some of the stores might not follow the best industry standards.

“These markets should not be singled out, but they also should not be exempt from meeting the same standards required by other purveyors of herbal and dietary supplements,” says Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and fellowship director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

Check with your doctor before taking traditional herbs, and make sure you know what they are and where they come from. If your culture’s health practices are important to you, consider seeking out an integrative physician, such as Low Dog, who combines conventional medical care with holistic and traditional methods.

7. Heart and cancer protection are not proved

Omega-3 pills and antioxidants are widely thought to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, respectively, and millions of women take calcium to protect their bones. But recent evidence casts doubt on whether those supplements are as safe or effective as assumed.

Calcium. The latest blow against calcium supplements was a report by German and Swiss researchers who followed almost 24,000 adults for an average of 11 years. They found that regular users of calcium supplements had an 86 percent increased heart-attack risk compared with those who didn’t use supplements, as reported in the June 2012 issue of the journal Heart. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant 30 percent reduction of heart-attack risk among adults with a moderately high intake of calcium from food itself.

Why the disparity? The researchers theorized that the supplements may cause quick spikes in blood calcium levels that have been linked to risky lipid levels, whereas calcium in food is likely to be absorbed more slowly. Get calcium from dairy products, green leafy vegetables, and fish with edible bones, such as sardines.

Omega-3 fish oil. The widely held view that fish-oil pills help prevent cardiovascular disease hit a snag when a study of 12,500 people with diabetes or prediabetes and a high risk of heart attack or stroke found no difference in the death rate from cardiovascular disease or other outcomes between those given a 1-gram fish-oil pill every day and those given a placebo, according to a June 11, 2012, New England Journal of Medicine online report. But the results may be clouded by the fact that participants were already taking other heart medication.

Most people can get enough omega-3s by eating fatty fish at least twice a week. The American Heart Association says that people who have coronary artery disease may want to talk to their doctor about omega-3 supplementation.

Antioxidants. Far from reducing cancer risk, as a lot of people believe, high doses of some antioxidant supplements may actually increase it, evidence suggests.

The discouraging news appeared in the May 16, 2012, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Based on current evidence, vitamins C and E haven’t been found to shield people from cancer; vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C don’t seem to protect against getting or dying from cancer; selenium doesn’t prevent prostate cancer; and there’s no convincing evidence that beta-carotene or vitamin A, C, or E supplements prevent gastrointestinal cancers. Still worse, the researchers wrote, “Some clinical trials show that some of these antioxidant nutrients may increase cancer risk.”

And there’s more bad news, from a study of 35,000 men reported in the Oct. 12, 2011, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association: Daily vitamin E supplementation may increase the risk of prostate cancer among healthy men.

The investigators warned that the implications of their findings were worrisome given that more than half of people 60 or older take supplements containing vitamin E. Moreover, 23 percent of them take at least 400 IU per day despite a recommended daily dietary allowance of only 22 IU for adult men.

Lay off the antioxidant supplements and reduce your cancer risk safely by quitting smoking, avoiding excessive drinking, and eating a healthy diet that includes plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains.

8. Pills can irritate the esophagus

Choking as a serious symptom showed up surprisingly often in the database we analyzed of problem reports to the FDA in the last five years, with more than 900 mentions. But true cases of choking, in which a pill actually goes down the windpipe instead of the esophagus, probably happen infrequently, says Joel Blumin, M.D., incoming chairman of the Airway and Swallowing Committee of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. That’s a medical emergency that requires immediate intervention, such as the Heimlich maneuver.

More typically, Blumin says, pills irritate the esophagus, causing a muscle spasm, or get physically stuck or slowed. “That sensation feels like choking,” he says, but it isn’t. Sometimes all you need is a second swallow or extra water to get the pill down.

To get a pill down easily, first take a swig of water to moisten your mouth and throat. Place the pill on the front of your tongue, take a sip of water, tilt your head back slightly, and swallow. Then drink the rest of the water to help propel the pill down your esophagus. People with persistent swallowing problems can switch to liquid or chewable formulations and should probably seek evaluation by an otolaryngologist.

9. Some ‘natural’ products are anything but

Vitamin pills can be synthetically, and legally, produced in a lab. Synthetic ingredients are even allowed in multivitamins that bear the Department of Agriculture’s “Organic” seal. But the FDA has said that synthetic copies of botanicals don’t qualify as dietary-supplement ingredients at all.

“Vitamins can be synthetic because, by definition, a vitamin doesn’t have to come from nature,” says Fabricant at the FDA. They just have to perform the biological activity of vitamins, he added, whereas a “botanical” means that it was alive at some point. In other words, botanicals and their extracts must come from actual living plants, not a test tube.

In April 2012, the agency sent warning letters to 10 manufacturers and distributors of products containing dimethylamylamine (DMAA), often touted as a natural stimulant. It said the ingredient lacked safety evidence and warned that synthetically produced DMAA was not a dietary ingredient at all. (The FDA said it is studying the companies’ responses.)

The FDA doesn’t require supplements to go through rigorous testing for safety and efficacy the way that drugs are tested. If you choose to take vitamins, botanicals, or other supplements, look for those with the “USP Verified” mark, which means they meet standards of quality, purity, and potency set by the nonprofit U.S. Pharmacopeia.

10. You may not need supplements at all

If you are already getting the recommended amount of nutrients by eating a variety of fruit, vegetables, cereals, dairy, and protein, there’s little if any additional benefit from ingesting nutritional supplements. Here’s our take on five top-selling vitamins, plus multis:

Vitamin A. Few people in the U.S. are outright deficient in vitamin A. The retinol form—which comes from animal sources such as eggs, liver, and whole milk—is more readily absorbed than beta-carotene, but even strict vegetarians can usually meet their needs by eating five servings a day of produce, including dark green leafy vegetables and orange and yellow fruit. Too much retinol can cause birth defects and liver abnormalities, and might harm bones.

B vitamins. Most people get plenty through their diet. Exceptions include vegetarians, who might need extra B12, which is found in animal-derived foods; the estimated 10 to 30 percent of people over 50 who don’t have enough stomach acid to extract B12 from food; and women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, who should take 400 micrograms a day of extra folic acid to help prevent birth defects.

Vitamin C. There’s some evidence that 200 milligrams or more of vitamin C a day might improve cold symptoms in smokers and seniors, though it won’t prevent colds. Vitamin C can enhance iron absorption, so avoid high doses if you have hemochromatosis, a condition in which the body absorbs and stores too much iron.

Vitamin D. If you get some midday sun exposure during the warmer months and regularly consume vitamin D-rich foods, such as fatty fish, eggs, and fortified dairy products, you probably don’t need to take a supplement. People who are middle-aged or older, are overweight, or have darker skin might need supplements. If you’re unsure about your vitamin D status, ask your doctor about having a blood test.

Vitamin E. Two analyses have linked as little as 400 IU a day to a small but statistically significant increase in mortality. Moreover, vitamin E may inhibit blood clotting, so it shouldn’t be taken with blood thinners.

Multivitamins. Large clinical trials have repeatedly found that multivitamins don’t improve the health of the average person. People who might need a multivitamin include women who are pregnant, breast-feeding, or trying to conceive; dieters consuming fewer than 1,200 calories a day or cutting out an entire food group (carbs, for example); and those with medical conditions that affect digestion and food absorption.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. Vaccines Are a “Holocaust” in America

- By Paul Joseph Watson - April 9, 2015

Bill to make shots mandatory in California gets first hearing

Robert Kennedy Jr., the nephew of JFK, caused controversy before the introduction of a bill that would mandate vaccines for children in California when he asserted that the number of kids developing autism after receiving shots represented a “holocaust” for America.

The legislation, which would ban exemptions on vaccines, got its first hearing Wednesday in front of the California Senate health committee. The new law would prevent parents from citing personal beliefs or religious reasons to avoid getting their children vaccinated.

Opposing the legislation, Kennedy highlighted the alleged link between vaccines and autism.

“They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,” he told the crowd. “This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”

Although acknowledging that he had his own six children vaccinated and supported the basic premise of vaccines, Kennedy warned that the system was being abused by the pharmaceutical industry.

“The checks and balances in our democratic system that are supposed stand between corporate power and our little children have been removed,” Kennedy said. “And there’s only one barrier left and that’s the parents.”

The bill is being heard amidst a recent national debate about vaccinations being made mandatory which began after a measles outbreak that infected more than 100 people in California and several other states.

The controversy escalated in February when Senator Rand Paul told a CNBC host, “I’ve heard many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.”

Paul went on to make the point that he believed in the efficacy of vaccines but that empowering the state to mandate them by force was a violation of basic liberties.

A 2011 study published in the reputable Human and Experimental Toxicology journal found a direct statistical link between higher vaccine doses and infant mortality rates in the developed world, suggesting that the increasing number of inoculations being forced upon children by medical authorities, particularly in the United States which administers the highest number of vaccines and also has the highest number of infant deaths, could be having a detrimental impact on health.

Despite the fact that it administers the most vaccines, the United States has the highest infant mortality rate of all developed countries, with an average of 6.22 deaths per 1000 live births. The US has a far higher infant mortality rate than the likes of Cuba or Slovenia despite spending vastly more on health care.

Watch the video below for a philosophical exploration of why empowering the state to mandate vaccines is completely anathema to basic civil rights.

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

The Vaccine Debate: What They are Not Telling You

Silent Epidemic - The Untold Story Of Vaccines

For people who have accepted vaccines' promises, “Silent Epidemic” will certainly make them rethink its mythology. Thus you shall discover Eugenics.

* Plandemic Truth Be Told - Germ Theory - Virology Or Toxicology.?

Neuro-degeneration - the Mercury-Alzheimer's Connection

Someone in America is diagnosed with Alzheimer's every 68 seconds. Mercury is the only toxin that has ever been shown to directly cause all of the typical degenerative pathologies of Alzheimer's disease in nerve cell cultures. This video from the University of Calgary illustrates an experiment that showed mercury in exceedingly small quantities causing the breakdown of growing neurons, leaving the neurofibrillary tangles seen in AD.

Mercury - How to Get this Lethal Poison Out of Your Body

Mercury poisoning could be leading to your ill health and weight gain, and you may not even realize it. In this weeks UltraWellness blog, Mark Hyman MD reviews some of the most recent research on the effects of mercury toxicity, explains how you can find out if you have a heavy load of mercury in your body, and offers suggestion on how to limit your exposure.

Mercury Detox - A 3-step Plan to Recover Your Health

Are you worried that you might be poisoned by mercury? A scary thought - but there is a way to heal. In this weeks UltraWellness blog Mark Hyman, MD outlines a 3-step plan to help your body detoxify from mercury and recover your health.

Health hazards of silver and mercury, or amalgam filling

Dental amalgam is a primitive filling material made of between 43 and 54 percent mercury. Amalgam fillings are commonly called as “silver fillings” – a marketing term that deceives many consumers into believing that amalgam is mainly silver, which is only a minor component of amalgam.

Amalgam is not stable after it is implanted into human teeth – it constantly releases mercury vapor into your body. And this mercury bioaccumulates.

What are the dangers of dental mercury?

Dental mercury endangers our environment

Amalgam accounts for between 240-300 tons of mercury entering the market every year. In the United States, dental offices are the second largest user of mercury – and this mercury eventually ends up in our environment by one pathway or another. Dental mercury from amalgam pollutes:
- water via not only dental clinic releases, but also human waste (amalgam is by far the largest source of mercury in our wastewater);
- air via cremation, dental clinic emissions, sludge incineration, and respiration; and
- land via landfills, burials, and fertilizer.
Once in the environment, dental mercury converts to its even more toxic form, methylmercury, and becomes a major source of mercury in the fish people eat.

Mercury and other toxic chemicals are accumulating in fish and wildlife to dangerous levels. Over 50,000 of U.S. lakes now have warnings regarding eating the fish. That's about 20 percent of all significant lakes in the U.S., including all Great Lakes, as well as about 7 percent of all U.S. river miles, and many coastal bays and estuaries. Over 50 percent of Florida water bodies have mercury warnings, and a large survey found over 30 percent of Floridians have dangerous levels of mercury.

The fish and wildlife subject to these exposures are showing serious and sometimes catastrophic hormonal and reproductive problems related to the accumulation of mercury and other endocrine disrupting chemicals. Affected species include:

Wading birds Alligators Florida panthers Minks

Bears Seals Beluga and orca whales And more…

The environmental health effects of amalgam are well known, and have recently been reiterated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency: brain damage and neurological problems, especially for children and the unborn babies of pregnant women. Due to the high costs of cleaning up this environmental hazard, amalgam is now recognized as “more expensive than most, possibly all, other fillings when including environmental costs.”

With dental mercury uncontrollably entering the environment from multiple pathways, ending dental mercury use and transitioning to non-mercury alternatives is the only way to eliminate this significant source of mercury that threatens our environment and ultimately our health.
Dental mercury endangers our health
The mercury in amalgam is a neurotoxin – and pro-mercury dentists are implanting it an inch from the brain!

Vulnerable populations – such as children, the fetuses of pregnant women, hypersensitive individuals, and people with kidney impairments – are known to be particularly susceptible to the neurotoxic effects of dental mercury.

That is why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel on dental amalgam in December 2010 warned against the use of amalgam in vulnerable populations and insisted that FDA had a duty to disclose amalgam’s risks to parents and consumers. As panelist Dr. Suresh Kotagal – a pediatric neurologist at the Mayo Clinic – summed it up, there is “no place for mercury in children.”

The FDA panelists are not alone. Other countries are already working to protect vulnerable populations, especially children, from exposure to amalgam. For example:
Dental mercury endangers dental workers
It is known that the mercury from amalgam causes reproductive harm – dental mercury even crosses the placenta and accumulates in unborn babies.

Due to mercury exposure from amalgam in the workplace, dental workers – including dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants – are at particular risk for suffering reproductive harm. Studies have shown that dental workers have elevated systemic mercury levels. Many of these dental workers are women of child-bearing age, which makes them particularly susceptible to the occupational hazards associated with handling mercury.

Few dental workers employed by pro-mercury dentists are given protective garb or air masks to minimize their exposure to mercury. After all, they would look like astronauts with all that protective gear and that would scare off the patients (who have every right to be scared of mercury). Many dental workers are not even aware of the risks of occupational mercury exposure. As a result, dental workers have reported serious health problems – especially reproductive failures and birth defects caused by amalgam in the workplace.
Dental mercury endangers our oral health
On top of all the neurological, reproductive, and environmental harm caused by amalgam, it turns out that amalgam even endangers our oral health.

As a primitive filling material, amalgam can be detrimental to oral health. It is well known that placing amalgam requires the removal of a significant amount of healthy tooth matter. This removal, in turn, weakens overall tooth structure which increases the need for future dental work. On top of that, amalgam fillings, which expand and contract over time, crack teeth and create the need for still more dental work.

Superior modern alternatives preserve healthy tooth structure and actually strengthen teeth, leading to better oral health and less extensive dental work over the long-term.

What are the alternatives to amalgam?

Amalgam is interchangeable with numerous other filling materials – including resin composites and glass ionomers – that have rendered amalgam completely unnecessary for any clinical situation. Always choose non-mercury fillings!

Within Vandana Shiva’s dedication to defending the natural world is a profound celebration of life. When we allow systems to sustain balance and wholeness, life truly can thrive. Below are some clips from an interview with THRIVE that never made it into the final cut of the film.

In conjunction with World Health Day, on April 7th, Vandana has asked us to share this message and call to action about choosing biodiversity over GMOs - specifically the Trojan horse that is Golden Rice. Please tune in for this important message.

- Kimberly Carter Gamble - April 4, 2015

Vandana Shiva - Biodiversity or GMOs?

Transcription

Vandana Shiva: As long as we stay alive, as long as we do not see ourselves as separate, as long as we see ourselves as carried by this amazing force, this amazing intelligence, there is never a moment you can feel powerless because you experience that deep power every moment and that’s where you stop despairing.

And in the ???, communities have got together to harvest rain as they used to traditionally through ??? and rivers that had died are coming alive. So, we are seeing a realignment with the water cycle and the sanctity of water and it is a power. That realignment unleashes energies, political and spiritual energies, that are, in my view, stronger than the power of capital, irresponsible capital, and we are turning things around.

There’s nothing like “the big work” and “the small work”. All work done for keeping life in its fullness and maintaining life in its fullness is The Great Work, as Thomas Berry taught. As a mother, I always say, “Once you’ve changed a babies ‘nappies’, that becomes the measure of the great work.” The ability to be there to change the ‘nappie’ at 3 a.m. in the morning — that is as important as dealing with the World Bank and it’s as important as dealing with the World Trade Organization.

Most cultures for most of humanity have lived over long periods of time by adapting to the patterns. We have developed in contemporary times this arrogance that our patterns are superior and that there is no pattern — that it’s all chaos, it’s disorder, it’s just accident — and then imposing the structures of concrete, the structure of fossil fuels, the patterns of pollution on a body of patterns of constant recycling. It is really the challenge of our times.

I think real science has to be a spiritual endeavor because real science is understanding deep patterns, understanding lasting process, and understanding how things hang together. Spirituality is the same thing. It is about understanding our place in the universe, it is about connecting to the rest of life, and that connection creates in its very existence a humility of you being just a small part of a very, very large, limitless beast and, while creating humility in you, it also creates responsibility that what you do has impact on a lot, on the full fabric, on the whole web of life.

Healthy Biodiversity or GMOs: will the future of nutrition be in women’s hands or under corporate control?

- By Vandana Shiva

Summary

Healthy Biodiversity or GMOs: will the future of nutrition be in women’s hands or under corporate control? Women have been the primary growers of food and nutrition throughout history, but today, food is being taken out of our hands and substituted for toxic commodities controlled by global corporations. Monoculture industrial farming has taken the quality, taste and nutrition out of our food. As a result, India is facing a nutritional crisis: every fourth Indian goes hungry, and in 2011 alone, diabetes took the lives of 1 million Indians. Malnutition and Anaemia requires affordable, diverse, nutritionally rich food where health & nutrition of women & children are given high priority, with them having much more say in decision making.

Now, the same companies who created the crisis are promising a miracle solution: GMOs. Genetically engineered Golden Rice and GMO Bananas are being proposed by corporations hiding behind the cloak of academia as a solution to hunger and malnutrition in the Global South. But these are false miracles. Indigenous biodiverse varieties of food grown by women provide far more nutrition than the commodities produced by industrial agriculture. Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women grow. GMO ‘iron-rich’ Bananas have 3000% less iron than turmeric and 2000% less iron than amchur (mango powder). Fenugreek (Methi), drumstick (Sahjan) and many others are far richer in Iron, & their availability & affordability need to be promoted. Apart from being nutritionally empty, GMOs are part of an industrial system of agriculture that is destroying the planet, depleting our water sources, increasing green houses gases, and driving farmers into debt and suicide through a greater dependence on chemical inputs. Moreover, these corporate-led industrial monocultures are destroying biodiversity, and we are losing access to the food systems that have sustained us throughout time. When we consider the number of patents involved in these initiatives, it becomes all too clear that the only beneficiaries of these supposedly ‘people-led’ ventures are large companies operating for profit — not for people.

This needs to stop now. We call on all women — the world’s primary food-growers and food-givers — to stand together and reclaim our knowledge, our farming, and our food. To expose the lies generated by the GMO industry, to reject the false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas, and to reclaim the planet for all living beings.

India’s nutritional emergency

India is facing a nutritional emergency. We are the capital of hunger and malnutrition. Every fourth Indian is hungry. Every second child wasted and stunted. India is the diabetes capital of the world with 50.8 million patients.

In 2011 the diabetes epidemic in the country took 1 million people’s lives. Diabetes, a metabolic disorder, is a result of an imbalanced diet. The Green Revolution’s focus on rice monocultures has been made at the cost of greens, daals, and more nutritious millets — and diabetes has crept into rural areas. Contrary to popular belief, diabetes affects more people in rural India (34 million) than affluent urban Indians (28 million).

An imbalanced agriculture based on monocultures and an imbalanced diet based on further denutrified white polished rice, & fine white flour has become a cause of increasing chronic Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). With 80% Medical costs being Out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) paid for by the patients & the families, NCDs become killers. Nearly 50% of Indian women suffer from iron deficiency anaemia.

What should be our response to this nutritional emergency: bringing biodiversity into our agriculture and food, or intensifying chemical monocultures of rice through the introduction of GMO Golden Rice? Empowering women by keeping food and nutritional security in their hands, or allowing corporations to take control of our food?

Nutritional deficiencies are a direct result of destruction of biodiverse sources of nutrition by industrial monocultures. Proponents of industrial agriculture — most significantly implemented in India through the Green Revolution — did not value nutrition. Instead, they focused on increasing inputs of imported chemicals, water and fossil fuels to grow chemical monocultures, in which food was reduced to an empty, toxic commodity. It lost is quality, taste, aroma, and — most importantly — its nutrition.

There are six processes through which industrial farming robs food of its nutrition.

First, industrial breeding is based on uniformity, long distance transport, and industrial processing. In comparison, food grown by women — who have been the primary seed breeders and producers of food — is based on diversity, taste, nutrition, quality and resilience. Traditional Indian varieties of wheat like Kathia, Bansi, and Mishri are full of taste and nutrition with low gluten varieties too. Industrially bred wheat varieties, on the other hand, are low in nutrition and have contributed to the epidemic of gluten intolerance.

Second, by replacing biodiversity with monocultures, industrial agriculture reduces the amount of nutrition per acre. With diversity we can grow enough iron for 20 Indias, and enough Vit A for all of India today.

Third, by substituting the sophisticated ecological processes of renewing fertility with chemical inputs of synthetic fertilizers, the health of the soil is destroyed, nutrition in soils is reduced, and plants which provide our food become nutritionally empty.

Percentage Decline in Mineral Content
of US and British Crops in the Last Sixty Years
Mineral	US 1963–1992 (13 fruits & vegetables)	Britain 1936–1987 (20 fruits & 20 vegetables)
N/A, not analyzed. * U.S. (Berginer, 1997) and British (Mayer, 1997) data.
Calcium	−29	−19
Magnesium	−21	−35
Sodium	N/A	−43
Potassium	−6	−14
Phosphorus	−11	−6
Iron	−32	−22
Copper	N/A	−81

The British Journal of Nutrition published a meta-analysis done by Professor Carlo Leifert of Newcastle University and 15 other scientists from around the world. This research finds significant differences in the nutritional content of organic and non-organic crops (fruit, vegetables, cereals and pulses). Organic crops and crop-based food products were found to have significantly higher concentrations of antioxidants (including phenolic acids, flavanones, stilbenes, flavones, flavonols and anthocyanines) compared with their conventionally produced counterparts. The mean percentage difference for most antioxidant compounds was between plus 18% and 69%. Smaller, but still statistically significant, composition differences were also detected for a number of carotenoids and vitamins.

A switch to eating organic fruit, vegetable and cereals (and food made from them) would lead to a 20–40% (and for some compounds up to a 60%) increase in crop-based antioxidant/(poly)phenolic consumption without any increase in calories. This is important as there is strong scientific evidence of the health benefits of increased consumption of (poly)phenolics and other plant secondary metabolites with antioxidant activity, most notably protection against chronic diseases, including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases and some cancers.

Fourth, GMOs are also leading to a decline in nutritional availability, because the biotechnology industry is growing commodities, not food. 90% of the GMO corn and soya goes to biofuel and animal food, not human food. This is not a viable food system.

Fifth, herbicide tolerant crops account for most of the GMOs cultivated. The use of Roundup (glyphosate) with Roundup Ready crops removes vital minerals like manganese through “chelation”-binding. Manganese is vital to the gut-brain connection. The depletion of this nutrient could be contributing to the autism epidemic in the USA. According the Centre of Disease Control, at current rates of increase, 1 in 2 children in the USA could be born autistic in 10 to 20 years. (Seneff in Vandana Shiva(ed) Seed Sovereignty, Food Security: Women in the Vanguard, Women Unlimited New Delhi, 2015)

Sixth, just as there is an ecology of biodiversity in our fields, there is an ecology of biodiversity in our nutrition. Nutrients need each other. Fats are needed for absorption and bioavailability of Vit A, and Vit C is needed for absorption of iron. Mechanistic reductionism in nutrition, like mechanistic reductionism in agriculture, undermines the ecological processes through which our farms grow nutrition and our bodies are nourished.

All the evidences points to the need to grow nutrition by intensifying biodiversity and ecological processes in our food and farming systems. This is the path Navdanya has followed over more than 2 decades. We have increased production of nutrition (Health per Acre) as well as farmers’ incomes (Wealth per Acre) through agroecology and biodiversity.

But today, industrial agriculture paradigm is trying to extend its non-sustainable life by promising answers to malnutrition through GMOs such as Golden Rice and GM Bananas.

Golden Rice is a False Miracle

Golden Rice is genetically engineered rice with two genes from a daffodil and one gene from a bacterium which gives it a yellow colouring, which is supposed to increase beta carotene, a precursor to Vit A. It is being offered as a miracle cure for Vit A Deficiency (VAD).

But Golden Rice is a false miracle. It is a disease of nutritionally empty monocultures offered as a cure for nutritional deficiency. According to goldenrice.org, children under the age of 7 require 450 ‘units’ of Retinol (Vitamin A) Equivalents. Children would therefore have to eat 300gms of Golden Rice to get their daily requirement of Vit A. In indigenous food cultures, a child’s diet normally contains less than 150 gms of rice, but also contains a range of other nutritious foods grown by women. In fact, Golden Rice is 350% less efficient in providing Vit A than the biodiversity alternatives that women have to offer. To get your daily requirement of Vit A, all you need to eat is one of the following:

two tablespoons of Spinach or Cholai leavesor Radish leaves
four tablespoons of Mustard or Bathua leaves
one tablespoon of coriander chutney
one and a half table spoon of mint chutney
one carrot
one mango

Not only do these indigenous alternatives based on women’s knowledge provide more Vit A than Golden Rice at a lower cost, they also provide other nutrients. One such example is iron, which helps fight iron deficiency and anaemia. But just like the biotechnology industry is offering Golden Rice for Vit A deficiency, it is promoting GMO bananas for increased Vit A and iron. In reality, GMO bananas provide 7000% less iron than indigenous biodiversity that Indian women are experts in growing and processing.

The Vit A in GMO Vit A bananas has been pirated from indigenous bananas in Micronesia. The beta-carotene traits have been added to the sticky japonica rice Taipei 309, which Indians do not eat. The feeding trials for Golden Rice as well as the GM Bananas were done illegally and unethically.

By foregoing biodiversity alternatives that provide more nutrition, the biotechnology industry is pushing for a monoculture rice diet, which is a recipe for intensifying the diabetes epidemic. With 62 million patients, India already has extremely high rates of diabetes. Golden Rice is an irresponsible proposal that would intensify this by blocking much-needed alternatives — biodiversity and balance in our diets. For example, dietary fats are needed to absorb Vit A. To get these in our diets, we need biodiversity of oilseed crops and livestock. Rice monocultures displace both these forms of fat, leaving us with no way to absorb Vit A, and thus aggravate the nutritional crisis.

Source: Grains of delusion: Golden rice seen from the ground

Golden Rice will also aggravate the ecological crisis caused by industrial agriculture. Since Golden Rice is part of the industrial agriculture package (also known as the seed-chemical package), it promotes monocultures, which further destroy biodiversity. Golden Rice will increase the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which are rupturing the planetary boundary of the nitrogen cycle.

India is already one of the largest importers of nitrogen fertilizers, and Golden Rice will only serve to increase this. Moreover, it will increase the use of water, intensifying the water crisis. It will contribute to climate change through increased green house gas emissions. And it will leave our farmers liable to higher input costs through dependence on chemicals and fees for proprietary technologies.

As a source of nutrition for the Global South, Golden Rice has no real benefits. But considering the precedents set by soya, corn, canola and cotton, introducing Golden Rice as a way for large companies to gain control over entire food cultures based on rice, makes perfect sense.

Golden Rice is A Trojan Horse for Corporate Control

Proponents of Golden Rice declare that it is a product of public research carried out through public funding. But in reality, the scientists involved are closely linked to the biotechnology corporations pushing royalty collection through patents.

Scientists Ingo Potrykus (Zurich) and Peter Beyer (Freiberg) are closely connected to the Biotechnology corporations for commercialization of Golden Rice through patents. There are more than 70 patents linked to Golden Rice, despite it being promoted as a product made for the public by the public. Corporations controlling these patents include Bayer AG, Monsanto Co, Orynova BV and Zeneca Mogen BV. A letter written by Dr. Potrykus illustrates just how enmeshed the invention of Golden Rice and corporate interests always were. When questioned about his partnerships with corporations in an email exchange with RAFI/ETC Dr. Potrykus wrote,

“Why did we need to involve a commercial partner? Because Golden Rice also needs a commercial basis to reach the urban poor. Why do we need a patent? Because only then we can ensure, that nobody interferes with our task. Zeneca (now Syngenta) had, therefore, legal rights on the Golden Rice. Why are you upset if in return Zeneca is trying to make profit from developing a commercial ‘Golden Rice’, which even also will have benefits for the poor not directly linked to subsistence farmers? Could you not agree that it is neither fair nor wise to blame industry for working for profit? This is for what they are there.”

The project leader on the Golden Rice project at the International Rice Research Institute is Dr Gerard Barry, was also involved with some of Monsanto’s ‘golden egg’ patents and the man responsible for the company’s toxic RoundUp resistant products. There is a clear revolving door between corporations and research institutions in which a handful of actors are driving a for-profit corporate venture. Giants including Monsanto and Syngenta sit in the driver’s seat by controlling patents Intellectual Property Rights, while cleverly spinning these initiatives as philanthropy to open up for more & more patented grains, vegetables, fruits, while ensuring systematic erosion of tradition diverse foods & Traditional knowledge about healthier, more nutritional, culturally acceptable, diverse food crops & foods, projecting them as inferior.

Open letter from Dr. Ingo Potrykus to Hope Shand and RAFI in Response to Their Press Release on “Golden Rice” from October 13

The alternative lies in women’s hands and minds

On International Women’s Day 8^th March 2015 and World Health Day 7^th April 2015, we the women of India and the world concerned & engaged with Women’s Health & nutrition commit ourselves to reclaiming our seed, food, and knowledge sovereignty so that we can all enjoy healthy, safe, nutritious, tasty and diverse food. And through our food, we will reclaim our health and the health of the planet.

We will not allow a further degradation of our food systems and knowledge systems. We do not have to go down the road of replacing our biodiversity with GMO monocultures and our rich knowledge of food and nutrition with scientific and ethical fraud. We will not sacrifice our seed and food sovereignty for corporate control and profits.

We commit ourselves to

Promote and evolve the use of our indigenous seeds, crops and foods to address the crisis of malnutrition and health.
Spread gardens of hope, diversity and nutrition everywhere: in schools, on rooftops, on balconies.
Spread nutritional literacy about our diverse foods, and biosafety literacy about toxics and GMOs. Celebrate 7^th April, World Health Day, which WHO has declared Safe Food Day from Farm to Table as a day for promoting Pesticide Free, GMO Free food.
Celebrate Mahila Anna Swaraj (food sovereignty in women’s hands) at Navdanya’s biodiversity farm in Doon Valley (27–29 March 2015) by strengthening alternatives that promote sustainability, justice and health.
Celebrate Mother Earth Day, 22^nd April 2015 to liberate the Earth, our farms, our kitchens and our bodies from the burden of disease. Celebrate the connection between the health of the soil and the health of all beings on the planet during 2015 the United Nations’ “Year of Soil”.

As women, in all our vibrant diversity, we will make a paradigm shift from monocultures to diversity, from chemicals to organic, from reductionist and mechanistic science to ecological knowledge, from corporate control and monopolies to seed sovereignty, food sovereignty and knowledge sovereignty in women’s hands and women’s minds. We will grow alternatives to the ecological and health disaster of industrial agriculture and its new false promises of Golden Rice and GMO Bananas.

We will shape the future of food and nutrition through biodiversity in our hands and in our minds. We will take back our seeds, and we will take back our food.

For further information please contact:

Dr Mira Shiva
Initiative for Health and Equity in Society
Mob: 91 9810582028

Dr Vandana Shiva
Diverse Women for Diversity

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