Silk Soymilk is produced with a Neurotoxic Chemical:

1. Silk’s Light soymilk, as well as its “Heart Health” soymilk, is made with hexane-extracted soy flour instead of whole soybeans. Hexane is a highly explosive volatile solvent. It is a byproduct of gasoline refining and a neurotoxin. Soybeans used in Silk’s Light and Heart Health soymilk are immersed in this neurotoxic petrochemical to make soy flour, which is listed as the main ingredient in these Silk products.

The above reason is enough for me. You can read the full article here:
Organic Consumers calls for Silk Soymilk boycott

Hear what a medical doctor who is also a Congressman, has to say about the swine flu “pandemic” and vaccine.

(NaturalNews) The FDA has approved Forest Laboratories’ antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) for use in children and adolescents, even as the federal government and 11 states have filed a lawsuit against the company for illegally pushing the drug on kids.

The federal government has accused Forest of bribing pediatricians to prescribe Lexapro and a related drug, Celexa (citalopram), to treat depression in children, even though such use had not been approved by the FDA at the time. The government also claims that Forest concealed the results of studies showing the drugs to be no more effective than a placebo.

“By knowingly and actively promoting these antidepressants for off-label pediatric use without disclosing the results of the negative pediatric study and by paying kickbacks, Forest caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs in violation of the False Claims Act,” said the federal complaint, issued on Feb. 25.

Lexapro was introduced in 2001 as a successor to Forest’s blockbuster Celexa, which lost patent protection and became available for generic replication in 2003. Both drugs are antidepressants in the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class, and like other SSRIs have been shown to significantly increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children, adolescents and young adults after even short-term use.

Lexapro is the 15th biggest selling drug in the United States.

On March 20, the FDA approved Lexapro for the treatment of major depressive disorder in children between the ages of 12 and 17, based on the findings of only one clinical study. Another study showed the drug to have no more effect than a placebo.

“A lot of these kinds of trials are not successful because it’s very difficult to do depression studies,” said Forest spokesman Frank Murdolo. “But we have two studies that were successful.”

The second study referenced by Murdolo was conducted on Celexa, which the FDA declined to approve for use in children. A second Celexa study found no evidence that the drug was effective.

The FDA also approved Lexapro as a way to maintain control of depression symptoms, even though Forest admits there is no clinical evidence for that benefit in children. The FDA argued that it was possible to extrapolate the effectiveness of the drug from adult studies.

Lexapro is only the second antidepressant to receive US approval for use in children.

According to a federal complaint however, Forest has been marketing Lexapro and Celexa to children illegally for at least nine years.

In 1999, the FDA asked the company to conduct two independent clinical trials into Celexa’s effectiveness in children, offering as incentive a six-month patent extension. Forest commissioned two studies — one by the Danish company Lundbeck, which initially developed the drug, and another by U.S. researcher Karen Dineen Wagner. While the Wagner study found “a statistically … significant reduction in depressive symptoms in children and adolescents” and “no serious adverse events” from the drug’s use, the Lundbeck study found that Celexa provided no benefits over the placebo. In addition, out of a total participant population of 244 in the Lundbeck study, nine more Celexa patients attempted or considered suicide compared with those taking a placebo.

For the next three years, however, Forest widely publicized the Wagner study but did not disclose the results of the Lundbeck study.

The complaint also accuses Forest of carrying out a “widespread campaign to promote the drugs for pediatric use by paying pediatric specialists to give promotional speeches to other physicians … and by selectively distributing publications on pediatric uses, among other strategies.”

Between 2000 and 2005, Forest hosted more than 900 “advisory boards” across the country about the use of the two antidepressants, paying more than 19,000 attendees $500 each. Other payments made to pediatricians included fishing trips, spa visits and tickets to sports games or Broadway shows.

Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com; www.psychiatrictimes.com.

(NaturalNews) It would cost between $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years to provide health insurance to everyone in the United States, according to an estimate by the consulting and policy analysis company the Lewin Group.

This is significantly greater than the $1.2 trillion that the group estimates it would take to pay for President Obama’s proposed health care plan, which would not cover all currently uninsured U.S. residents.

Obama recently set aside $634 billion in the 2009 budget as a “down payment” on reforming the health insurance system.

“It’s impossible to put a price tag on the plan before even the basics have been finalized,” White House spokesperson Reid Cherlin said. “Here’s what we do know: The reserve fund in the president’s budget is fully paid for and provides a substantial down payment on the cost of the reforming our health care system.”

Len Nichols of the New America Foundation estimated the cost of health insurance reform to be between $1.25 and $1.5 trillion over the next decade but said that Obama is being “strategic” by not committing to a firm estimate.

“Until that gets revealed by the Congress, it would be highly premature for the president to assert that sort of number,” he said.

Because the health care reform is meant to be permanent, however, the plan could commit the United States to paying $150 billion per year into the indefinite future. The only way to reduce this cost would be to find a way to reduce the country’s current expenditure on health care, an estimated $2.4 trillion per year.

“We shouldn’t just be throwing more money on top of the present system, because the present system is so wasteful,” said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

More than a third of all money spent on health care in the United States goes to pay for unnecessary tests or other medical procedures, many experts estimate.

Sources for this story include: apnews.myway.com.

(NaturalNews) Phthalates used in food packaging could be linked to childhood obesity, according to two recent studies conducted by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine that included research conducted on more than 900 children in East Harlem and surrounding communities. The studies have added to a growing body of evidence that link phthalates to health problems.

One of the studies, according to the Mount Sinai researchers, focused on 400 girls in the East Harlem community. The results showed that the heaviest girls had the highest levels of phthalates metabolites in their urine.

Another significant research project called Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem examined the diet and other factors for 520 East Harlem children aged 6-8 with the results indicating that the level of phthalates in the children tested was higher than the national average.

About 40 percent of children in East Harlem are considered to be overweight or obese. “When we say children, I’m talking about kindergarten children, we are talking about little kids,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai, one of the lead researchers on one of the East Harlem studies. “This is a problem that begins early in life.”

Health concerns over phthalates have been debated for more than 10 years, as shown by a New York Times article from 1999 that describes opposing views on their use and mentions an FDA investigation into the matter. At that time, a major concern was the use of chemicals in children’s toys.

Previous reports linking phthalates to health disruptions have shown that they are connected to abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, poor semen quality in men, and changes in reproductive organs in infant boys.

Phthalates can be found in personal care products like cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, paint and pesticides. They are also used to make plastics more pliable. Phthalates are absorbed into the body and are a type of endocrine disruptor – a category of chemical that affects glands and hormones that regulate various bodily functions.

The FDA continues conducting ongoing investigations into potential risks, but notes that while there have been studies on laboratory animals demonstrating carcinogenic effects of certain chemicals, “there are no studies in humans that are adequate to serve as the basis for regulatory decision-making.”

Other packaging chemicals that have recently caused consumer concern include Biosphenol A (BPA) and perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). PFCs, which are found in grease-resistant packaging such as that used in microwaveable popcorn bags and pizza boxes, have been linked to infertility in women.

Sources:

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Publications/Food-Beverage-Nutrition/FoodProductionDaily.com/Packaging/Studies-link-packaging-chemical-to-childhood-obesity/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/child-obesity-is-linked-to-chemicals-in-plastics/?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/28/health/a-debate-over-safety-of-softeners-for-plastic.html?sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1

About the author
Louis Lazaris is a website developer, programmer and owner of Natural-Life.ca, a resource that offers free business listings for Canadian naturopathic doctors, organic food stores, organic farms, and organic and vegetarian restaurants.
Louis also maintains a web design blog where he regularly posts web design articles and web design tutorials.