Favorite Article: Mike Adams' Article: 10 Worst Toxins Hidden in Foods & Supplements

I was recently sent a great article that's worth checking out, 10 Worst Toxins Hidden in Vitamins, Supplements, & Health Foods written by Mike Adams, editor of NaturalNews.com  

The article discusses important information we should all be familiar with when buying food & supplements such as maltodextrin, GMOs, MSG, & other additives that can be easily overlooked but do great harm to our bodies. An investigative journalist & activist in the natural food industry for over a decade, Mr. Adams routinely runs laboratory tests on products to ensure the quality of the product meets with the information on the labels, government guidelines, etc. Mr. Adams also spot checks product formulations & certified organic food production, interviewing companies as a supervisor of a USDA-certified organic food production & packing facility.

Favorite Tools: Great New App to Help With Making Healthy Choices

Nota Bene: I apologize for the lapse in articles these past two weeks as I have not written as many I would've liked. Sometimes it takes me longer to write these when I'm feeling under the weather, so stick with me- Thanks for your patience!

I stumbled across this app for my iPhone & was pleasantly surprised at how helpful it was in educating people about healthy food choices. With food manufacturers using tricky language & inventing new names on a daily basis (all with the FDA's & USDA's support, mind you), it can be more than baffling attempting to decipher packaging on foods. Many people see the words 'all natural', 'healthy choice', 'reduced'-this-and-that, etc. & think that they are making wise & thoughtful choices in regards to their health when in fact it is just not that simple.

Fooducate is not just for the iPhone, but for Android & online use as well. It works by scanning a barcode or searching for a product, the user is instantly able to see information about the product (good & bad) whether its present on the label or not. This information is gathered by requesting it from the manufacturers & also gathered research by the creators of the program (with the help of the users too!).

Pink Slime...

   I had heard of the controversial meat additive that is referred of as 'pink slime' long before the media frenzy these past few weeks & the long over due public outcry calling for the manufacturers to stop adding it to our meats. As I was watching the news last night, there was a short story about the pink slime additive that caught my attention. So when I heard on the news that Texas governor, Rick Perry visited & toured a Nebraska meat plant that is responsible for making the pink slime, I was rather shocked. Perry along with 2 other governors toured the facilities to support the company & their pink slime product. Governors of Texas, Kansas, & Iowa, three of the top 10 beef producing states in the nation- #1 spot going to Texas, stated that beef containing the additive was "leaner" & therefore healthier. The governors ended their press conference by eating hamburgers made from Beef Products, Inc. or BPI's  beef.

A Beef Products Inc. processing plant in South Sioux City, Neb.
The company injects fatty beef trimmings with ammonia to remove E. coli and salmonella.

   This controversial product has been called "safe" by the company who makes it, Beef Products, Inc. & the USDA has agreed with them. For decades, 'lean beef trimmings' or its informal name pink slime, has been used as a processing agent to kill bacteria in meats. The ammonia solution first came about in order to use other parts of the cow that otherwise could not be eaten by people.These fatty trimmings & connective tissues harbor significant bacterial growth & so where used in things like pet food rather than meat for human consumption. By soaking these trimmings & riding them of deadly bacteria like E coli, meat factories were then able to produce more meat, more cheaply which ultimately leads to more money!