Circus Roncalli was once like any other — a gathering place for the young and old alike to take in clown and trapeze shows, and marvel at Earth’s majestic creatures.
According to Metro, (link to article) however, the German circus has now decided to take a stance against wildlife abuse by replacing real animals with 3D holograms.
Filed under Nature
Flamingo No. 492 escaped with a companion from a zoo in Wichita, Kan., in June 2005, after keepers failed to clip their feathers. It was spotted in South Texas alone almost 13 years later. Texas Parks and Wildlife (search for FlamingoFugitive to find update in May 2019)
This link will take you to the New York Times article written when the flamingo was first found in 2018. Both are worth reading.
Filed under Nature
Food should be good for you. But some isn’t. More than 10,000 additives* are allowed in food. Some are direct additives that are deliberately formulated into processed food. Others are indirect additives that get into food during processing, storage and packaging. How do you know which ones to avoid because they raise concerns and have been linked to serious health problems, including endocrine disruption and cancer?
EWG’s “Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Additives” helps you figure it all out by highlighting some of the worst failures of the regulatory system. The guide covers ingredients associated with serious health concerns, additives banned or restricted in other countries and other substances that shouldn’t be in food. And it underscores the need for better government oversight of our food system.
Here’s a list of 12 additives that EWG calls the “Dirty Dozen.” We’ll tell you why, which foods contain them and what you can do to avoid them. (A good place to start is by looking up your food in EWG’s Food Scores database).
Filed under Healthy Eating
Study blames Roundup herbicide for gluten intolerance and celiac disease epidemic. Article found in “Get Holistic Health”
“Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it,” researchers wrote in a meta-analysis of nearly 300 studies.
“Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic,” they add.
“Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic,” they add.
Filed under Healthy Eating, Toxins in Food
The EWG (Environmental Working Group) has been working for years to gather facts and distribute the truth about toxins in our environment and the effect upon our health. You can trust these folks and their writings!
Fresh Organic Strawberries
Every spring EWG releases their Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™. The guide can be used by anyone trying to avoid pesticides, but it’s especially important for parents to limit their children’s exposures to these toxic chemicals.
This article on their website has a lot more good information and links to resources. Hope you find these links useful!
Filed under Green Living Tips, Healthy Eating, Toxins in Food
Artificial sweeteners commonly used in foods and drinks have a toxic effect on digestive gut microbes.
According to a study published in the journal Molecules, researchers found that six 
common artificial sweeteners approved by the Food and Drug Administration and 10 sport supplements that contained them were found to be toxic to the digestive gut microbes of mice.
This article comes from US News and World, published Oct. 1, 2018. HERE is a link to the full article.
More information:
The Environmental Working Group previously published their article called “Low-calorie sweeteners: Are they better or worse for you than sugar?”
Filed under Healthy Eating
A new page has been added so that I can blog about my research and experiences since being diagnosed with Lupus in 2014. Info on it is sparse right now, but watch for much more to come.
Filed under Lupus
Here are 10 surefire methods to help you eat well without breaking the bank:
This article has some useful ideas. Check it out HERE
Filed under Healthy Eating
When Sally Struever was pregnant with her 9-month-old son, Jasper Eiermann, she made an effort to avoid the plastic chemical BPA and to eat food free of pesticides. An avid gardener, she tends two organic garden plots, preserves many of the vegetables for winter, and cooks the majority of her food from scratch, avoiding packaged and processed foods. Her pediatrician even shared concerns with her that peanut allergies may be tied to the large quantities of pesticides applied to the legumes.
“Babies are so tiny, even small doses of things can have a big effect,” said Struever, who lives in Portland with her husband, Peter Eiermann. “It just made sense to me to avoid pesticides as much as possible.”
A growing body of research is backing up Struever’s concerns. A study published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics looked at the connection between prenatal pesticide exposure and a child’s size at birth. By measuring pesticide residues in umbilical cord blood, the researchers found a link between prenatal pesticide exposure and babies with lower birth weights, shorter birth lengths and smaller head circumferences.” Read the rest of this article here: http://www.pressherald.com/2011/10/05/chemical-concerns-should-steer-families-toward-organic-food_2011-10-05/
To follow up on yesterdays post, here is a petition you can sign to help stop the use of the pesticide that is killing bees. Credo Action is hosting the petition. Here is an except from their article with the petition:
A blockbuster study released this week by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has for the first time labeled the pesticide clothianidin as an “unacceptable” danger to bees.1
Scientists have long thought that clothianidin is at least partially to blame for the alarming rate that bees have been dying off in the U.S. – nearly 30% of our bee population, per year, has been lost to so-called colony collapse since 2006.2
But the EPA has repeatedly ignored scientists’ warnings and Americans’ urgings to ban its use, citing lack of evidence.
Now, the EFSA study could be a major breakthrough to convince the EPA to take emergency action, and suspend the use of clothianidin to stop the precipitous decline in global honeybee populations.
Tell the EPA: Immediately suspend the pesticide that’s killing bees!
Please take a moment to sign this petition! Link is HERE
Filed under Green Living Tips, Green News Items, Organic Farming, Toxins
Organic Products are Healthier 