Robert Paterson's Weblog

15 Food Companies that Serve You ‘Wood’

Indeed, food producers save as much as 30% in ingredient costs by opting for cellulose as a filler or binder in processed foods, according to a source close to the processed food industry who spoke with TheStreet on the condition of anonymity.

Inman said that in his 30 years in the food science business, he’s seen “an amazing leap in terms of the applications of cellulose fiber and what you can do with it.” He said powdered cellulose has a bad reputation but that more of his customers are converting from things like oat or sugar cane fibers to cellulose because it is “snow white in color, bland and easy to work with.”

Most surprising, said Inman, is that he’s been able to remove as much as 50% of the fat from some cookies, biscuits, cakes and brownies by replacing it with powdered cellulose – but still end up with a very similar product in terms of taste and appearance.

“We’re only limited by our own imagination,” Inman told TheStreet. “I would never have dreamed I could successfully put 18% fiber in a loaf of bread two years ago.”

He said cellulose is common in processed foods, often labeled as reduced-fat or high-fiber – products like breads, pancakes, crackers, pizza crusts, muffins, scrambled eggs, mashed potato mixes, and even cheesecake. Inman himself keeps a box of Wheat Thins Fiber Selects crackers, manufactured by Kraft Foods Nabisco brand, at his desk, and snacks on them daily, clearly unmoved by the use of wood pulp in its ingredients.

“Most consumers would be shocked to find these types of filler products are used as substitutes for items that they believe are more pure,” Yoshikami said. “We would expect increased disclosure to follow increased use of cellulose and other filler products as the practice increases in frequency.”

To that end, TheStreet rounded up a list of popular foods that use cellulose. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and we suggest consumers read food labels carefully.

via foodfreedom.wordpress.com

The article goes on to provide a list of the foods that contain high levels of cellulose.

But the lesson for me is - I cannot trust Big Food - and nor should you.

Preventing heart disease without drugs

Let’s just make this crystal clear: 9 out of 10 cases of heart disease are completely preventable without drugs. With sales of statin drugs reaching close to $30 billion this year with Lipitor alone bringing in close to $14 billion, this might come as some surprise. But the pharmaceutical companies are, quite literally, invested in people taking their cholesterol-lowering drugs in spite of the complete lack of evidence that lowering cholesterol prevents heart disease.

In order to understand the changes we need to make to prevent heart disease, we have to briefly examine what causes it. By now you know that the answer is not “cholesterol”. In fact, as I mentioned briefly in last week’s article, the two primary contributing mechanisms to heart disease are inflammation and oxidative damage.

Inflammation is the body’s response to noxious substances. Those substances can be foreign, like bacteria, or found within our body, as in autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. In the case of heart disease, inflammatory reactions within atherosclerotic plaques can induce clot formation.

When the lining of the artery is damaged, white blood cells flock to the site, resulting in inflammation. Inflammation not only further damages the artery walls, leaving them stiffer and more prone to plaque buildup, but it also makes any plaque that’s already there more fragile and more likely to burst.

Oxidative damage is a natural process of energy production and storage in the body. Oxidation produces free radicals, which are molecules missing an electron in their outer shell. Highly unstable and reactive, these molecules “attack” other molecules attempting to “steal” electrons from their outer shells in order to gain stability. Free radicals damage other cells and DNA, creating more free radicals in the process and a chain reaction of oxidative damage.

Normally oxidation is kept in check, but when oxidative stress is high or the body’s level of antioxidants is low, oxidative damage occurs. Oxidative damage is strongly correlated to heart disease. Studies have shown that oxidated LDL cholesterol is 8x greater stronger a risk factor for heart disease than normal LDL.

Since there may be some confusion on this point, I want to make it clear: normal LDL cholesterol is not a risk factor for heart disease in most populations, but oxidated LDL cholesterol is. This points to oxidation as the primary risk factor, not cholesterol. Why? Because when an LDL particle oxidizes, it is the polyunsaturated fat that oxidizes first. The saturated fat and the cholesterol, hidden deep within the core of the lipoprotein, are the least likely to oxidize.

It follows, then, that if we want to prevent heart disease we need to do everything we can to minimize inflammation and oxidative damage.

via chriskresser.com

I have several friends who have had heart attacks. All but one are still locked in by their fear to their drugs. None are well now. All suffer from side effects.

I have made no progress except for the one in getting any of them to take charge.

Any advice for me?

The Job is Dying – The Need for a New Way to Make a Living |

The Real New Economy

The end of the job is not doom and gloom – provided your ambition is not to get your job back. If instead, you wish to “Make a Living”, then this is what is emerging as the real new economy.

For technology works both ways. Just as technology is taking away your job it is also giving you a new way to make a good living.

What is new, since 1980, is that there are tools available for the self-employed that enable us to be more productive than many that have a job. Even better, we can now afford tools today that only a large firm could have had back in 1980. Even better, now we can get connected over distance and time for close to free.

The real power of this new “Small Personal” Model is that when the small and personal gets connected into a network. then it has power. More power than the traditional system.

(See more on this here from Harold Jarche)

In 1900 most business was small personal and local. It could not be connected. This model was supplanted by the one we know well. Where scale was monolithic and based on the idea of the machine.

Now the small and personal can be connected. This gives it the power of the Network Effect. We are going back to future. The skilled artisan is returning. But now she has the same access to tools as the great monolith. And now she has access to the network that will give her much more power than the monolith ever had or could have.

In this new context, the very small, or the self-employed, need not be on the scrap heap, provided the have the right mindset and the right support.

The “Right Mindset” is to not look back to the job but to look forward to being an artisan again.

And what makes this all work is the Network. On our own, even with all the wonderful new tools, we are still weak. It is the network that makes all this opportunity possible.

Is this just an idea and a hope? No we are far along the road. If you don’t see it clearly yet, please let me help you see. Look over my shoulder and I will point the emerging new to you.

via queenstreetcommons.org Follow the link for the article

Freelancer? How to get paid & all the money issues

Next up in our Lunch & Learn Series is Kelly Burke, long time financial practitioner, independent bookkeeper and CFO at silverorange. Kelly’s range of experience and obvious attention to detail bring to our session a practical approach to ensuring that you, as a small business owner, get paid for your products or services. Kelly will go over the information you need to include in an invoice, when to start charging interest, how to determine if you need a USD account, considerations for using paypal and what to do if you have a client who won’t pay. This promises to be another extremely practical session in our ongoing series.

Queen Street Commons    .    224 Queen Street

via queenstreetcommons.org

Kelly is the Ghostbusters of the Money side of a small business. Come and make more sense of how the money works for you at the Queen Street Commons on Nov 16 12 - 1pm 224 Queen Street. $5 for non members

Sign up here

Your Immune system - your best defence against Flu

Build a Strong Immune System to Stay Healthy During Flu Season

Have you ever known anyone who never seems to get sick? The reason is because they have a strong immune system. These individuals don’t have to be the only ones who rarely get sick. Anyone can build a strong, healthy immune system. This requires a plenty of exercise. Moderate daily exercise boosts the immune system.

Quality sleep is essential. Always sleep in a completely dark room to maximize melatonin production for high quality sleep. A healthy high-alkaline diet has all the daily requirements of key vitamins and minerals that allow the body to defend against viruses. Garlic has powerful antiviral and antibacterial properties. Limit sugar intake from all sources. A couple of grams of sugar severely limits the white blood cells ability to prevent infections for several hours.

Healthy levels of intestinal flora are essential to good health. Adequate levels of intestinal flora promote white cell reactions against viruses and bacteria. Daily intake of probiotics from such as water kefir and plain organic yogurt will help repopulate intestinal flora which is depleted by GMO foods, processed foods and antibiotics. Taking a quality probiotic supplement may also be necessary depending on your diet.

The most important nutrients for the immune system are Vitamin A from beta carotene(10,000 IU/day), vitamin C(1000 mg/day), B6(100 mg/day), B12 (2000 mcg/day), kyolic garlic(2 tablets three times per day and Zinc(50 mg/day). Nutrients with powerful antiviral and immune system strengthening ability are astragalus and propolis which can safely be taken year round. Elderberry syrups and extracts have been proven to speed recovery time from colds and the flu.

New research conducted at Jikei University in Tokyo found that vitamin D is highly effective at stopping flu infections in children. In fact, it has been found to be eight times more effective at preventing the flu than flu vaccines. Details of the study can be found in the March 2010 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Getting a flu shot may seem like the convenient, easy solution. Unfortunately, it is rarely effective and there are a number of possible short term side effects and due to toxic additives, the risk of certain diseases is multiplied. Eating healthy, getting plenty of rest and exercise on a daily basis, will build a strong immune system able to make frequent battles with the flu a thing of the past.

via stevemark122000.hubpages.com

Your best defence against any disease

Flu Vaccination?

While the flu vaccine is touted as the "best" way to avoid catching the seasonal flu, what many fail to realize is that the science available actually does NOT support this conclusion. In essence, it's wishful thinking that is unsupported by scientific evidence.

Take the Cochrane Database Review for example—which is the gold standard for assessing the effectiveness of common medical interventions—as discussed here in a recent article on GreenMedInfo.com. Here are five Cochrane Database Reviews, published between 2006 and 2010, completely decimating the claim that flu vaccinations are the best course of action to prevent the flu.

1. A large-scale, systematic review of 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in 2006, found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo in children under two. The studies involved 260,000 children, age 6 to 23 months.
2. Two years, later, in 2008, another Cochrane review again concluded that "little evidence is available" that the flu vaccine is effective for children under the age of two.

   Even more disturbingly, the authors stated that: "It was surprising to find only one study of inactivated vaccine in children under two years, given current recommendations to vaccinate healthy children from six months old in the USA and Canada. If immunization in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required."

3. Then, last year, Cochrane published the following bombshell conclusion:

   "Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission.

   WARNING: This review includes 15 out of 36 trials funded by industry (four had no funding declaration). An earlier systematic review of 274 influenza vaccine studies published up to 2007 found industry funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and cited more than other studies independently from methodological quality and size. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines.

   The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies. The content and conclusions of this review should be interpreted in light of this finding." [Emphasis mine.]

4. Last year, Cochrane also reviewed the available evidence with regards to protecting the elderly, and the results were equally abysmal. The authors concluded that: "The available evidence is of poor quality and provides no guidance regarding the safety, efficacy or effectiveness of influenza vaccines for people aged 65 years or older."

    

5. They also reviewed whether or not vaccinating health care workers can help protect the elderly patients with whom they work. In conclusion, the authors state that: "[T]here is no evidence that vaccinating health care workers prevents influenza in elderly residents in long-term care facilities.

via articles.mercola.com

And what happened to mortality in the years when they guess the strain wrong? Nothing.

 

O Valiant Heart

 

My Many Lives - What next?

I feel like a teen again. At 61 I wonder who I will become in the next few years. So I am going back to the big choice I made when I had to decide what path I was to take for the working part of my life.

If I had to live my life all over again, I would have chosen this. I chose it then. I was all set to go to RMC and enter the Canadian Army. But I had second thoughts and backed out.

I loved acting too and was good at it. Many encouraged me to go into theatre. 

But what decided me was that I needed to get away from my family - in every way. And so earning the kind of money that would make me independent early was the decing force. So Soldier Rob and Actor Rob did not grow. Though they both still live in me.

I became banker Rob

Here I am in my uniform!

But in my mid forties I could not be Banker Rob any more. I became Teacher/Consultant Rob.

At first I worked with large organizations and still kept the "Look" of that world.

But as I began to immerse myself in nature and networks, I drifted away from the Corporate World. We did not fit anymore.

I became more relaxed.

Here I am at NPR having a good day with Doc Searls and Jeff Jarvis.

As I drifted even further from the corporate world, I toyed with becoming the sage.

But now I feel the warrior returning. I feel that I will have to fight for the new world that is the only way my grand children will have much of  chance.

Funny how life comes around?

 

Diabetes - The Link to you losing your mind!

As predicted, the scans showed that the diabetic patients not only had greater blood vessel constriction than the control subjects, but they also had more atrophied brain tissue, particularly gray matter. The results also showed that, in the patients with diabetes, the frontal, temporal and parietal regions of the brain were most affected. Similarly, the team's measurements of serum markers confirmed that high glucose levels were strongly correlated with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines.

"It appears that chronic hyperglycemia and insulin resistance - the hallmarks of diabetes - trigger the release of adhesion molecules [sVCAM and sICAM] and set off a cascade of events leading to the development of chronic inflammation," says Novak. "Once chronic inflammation sets in, blood vessels constrict, blood flow is reduced, and brain tissue is damaged. "

This discovery now provides two biomarkers of altered vascular reactivity in the brain. "If these markers can be identified before the brain is damaged, we can take steps to try and intervene," says Novak, explaining that some data indicates that medications may improve vascoreactivity.

But more important, she says, the new findings provide still more reason for doctors and patients to focus greater attention on the management - and prevention - of diabetes.

"Cognitive decline affects a person's ability to successfully complete even the simplest of everyday tasks, such as walking, talking or writing," says Novak. "There are currently 25.8 million cases of type 2 diabetes in the United States alone, which is more than eight percent of our total population. The effects of diabetes on the brain have been grossly neglected, and, as our findings confirm, are issues that need to be addressed."

via medicalnewstoday.com

30% of Islanders are predicted to have Type 2 Diabetes. Not only does it drive a massive increase in health care system use and so costs but as this study shows, it makes us less able mentally.

Do we have a prevention and rehab strategy Minister Currie? Do you have a plan to have one?

Remembering Capt Philip Mann killed in Action April 1975

Since WWII there have been a number of minor wars where the warriors turned up. Philip Mann was one of those warriors.

Philip is on the right in this picture taken of us at school. This was in 1968. He was the one of the 3 of us (James Heaton is in the centre) who went on to join the regular army and joined his father's regiment. But he was not a peacetime soldier. 

The Dhofar campaign was one of those brutal little wars that Britain has often faught. 

Philip was killed in action on April 13th of 1975. He had just had his 25th birthday. His position was being overun and he had to call in fire on top of it.  Prior to this final action he won the highest award possible in Oman. Here is the citation.

I think today of his father Reverend Michael Mann and his sister Elizabeth.