Ԫ ∞ UNIVERSAL ROOT NETWORKS ∞ » 2008 » December
Dec 20

How You Can Lose Weight Using Hypnosis

Should you lose weight quickly or slowly?

Losing weight and keeping it off are much, much easier than you probably think…

The healthiest way to lose weight is not the quickest way to lose weight. Crash diets and new, trendy weight loss plans or sudden and drastic increases in exercise are not recommended and most doctors consider such an approach to weight loss to be dangerous.

Have you ever felt that the whole weight loss game is just one big lie? You lose some weight – you put it back on. Each time you feel even more miserable than you did before.Lose Weight Using Hypnosis

Most people, when they look back at their weight loss history find that over time they are actually putting weight on. What a contradiction!

Does this sound familiar to you?

Do you want to know the real secret?

People who are happy with their weight and keep to a healthy weight don’t actually try. They just do things a certain way. The formula for success is actually easy and it’s the same formula being used again and again. It’s actually all about ”habits”.

Want to stop going round in circles trying to break old habits? The reason hypnosis is such a powerful tool for weight loss is it’s potential to help you build new healthy habits. This is ideal for easy, natural weight loss. We are dedicated to the idea that this weight loss should be permanent and healthy and that’s why we are very careful about the products we sell and recommend on this site.

Exercise is highly recommended as part of a weight loss plan combined with a healthy diet but changes must all be gradual ensuring that you find a very natural way to lose weight.

Lose Weight and Keep it Off! The Secret to Easy and Permanent Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy can help with weight loss and weight management in many ways

  • Developing a new self image. See yourself in the future after losing weight and make that your desired future outcome.
  • Learn to be more relaxed about weight loss and weight management. Stress is often a serious factor in bad diet and comfort eating.
  • Positive thinking about weight and diet. Stop worrying about your weight and about weight loss and start looking forward to losing weight and achieving your goals.
  • Create a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, start to feel better about yourself. This will help you to lose weight and, of course, losing weight will help you to feel even better about who you are and what you can achieve. The whole thing becomes a very positive cycle which goes round and round. Most people expect to have to lose weight in order to feel good about themselves. Interestingly, when you start to feel good about yourself, weight loss, health and happiness often follow.

General information on weight loss

Hypnosis can help by allowing you to overcome unconscious obstacles which prevent you from losing weight and from keeping weight off after a successful diet. You know that eating too much is not what you desire and you know that exercise and sensible diet are important. However, these are not conscious, logical issues. Successful weight loss is as much about re-educating your unconscious mind as it is about dieting. Hypnosis is one of the most natural ways to lose weight. 

Understanding what hypnosis is and is not will help you to see a more clear connection between the mind and your weight. Everyone knows that to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. It is also clearly established that dieting does not work in any long term way. The statistics show that diets are almost certain to fail; they can sometimes be useful for losing a few pounds quickly for a special occasion but, to maintain a healthy weight in the long term, you really do need to be thinking about things differently. You also need to be developing new habits and breaking down old associations (the easiest way to do this is, of course, to build new positive associations).

Diets seem to encourage people to adopt two very strong beliefs. Firstly, they build up an expectation that you are going to have to make yourself do something you don’t want to do. Secondly, they are supposed to be difficult. Modern approaches to change, including hypnotherapy and other applied psychology methods create a very serious challenge to both of these beliefs. Hypnotherapists believe that healthy weight management can be as easy as any habit and that it can be a choice.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy work on a subconscious level to help you achieve a state of mind where you can actually lose weight willingly. Until you are genuinely willing to make the changes the goal actually seems very difficult to achieve. One solution, therefore, is to hire the services of a hypnotherapist.

http://www.hypnos.info/cds/cd01.html

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Dec 20

Hemp protein powder, raw, organic, vegan

Hemp protein powder, raw, organic, vegan 

Food: Hemp protein powder, 100g or 500g, 100% raw, organic and vegan.

 

 

Certified organic 

Vegan Society approved

100% organic, high performance protein powder; easily digestible and able to replace all protein sources. 
Packed with live enzymes, EFAs, vitamins, minerals and other co-factors to aid absorption. 
Enhancing performance for all the demands of modern life; excellent for the body and for the planet.

  • Delicious, convenient, live, organically grown, whole food product, containing 52% protein
  • Complete raw plant protein including all the essential amino acids
  • Optimal ratio of omega 6 to 3 essential fatty acids with 2-4% GLA
  • Antioxidant factors with tocopherols, tocotrienols and chlorophyll
  • Easily digested, non GM, gluten-free, and dairy-free
  • 0.00% THC

You love itHemp protein powder

  • Easily digestible with 65% globulin edestin and 35% albumin protein, more than any other plant. These substances aid digestion and assimilation, and are in a form similar to that found in blood plasma. 
  • Contains natural antioxidants.
  • Does all those things high protein foods do! Feel energetic with a free conscience.
  • Keeps you feeling balanced and reduces unhealthy cravings.
  • Women love this food for their menstruation, and menopause.
  • Great for dry hair and skin, as it nourishes you.

The history of hemp

Hemp, or Cannabis Sativa, is considered to be one of nature’s most nutritious, balanced and economically viable as well as versatile crops. It has been used for thousands of years and has over 40,000 recorded uses. Prior to 1880 hemp was the largest domesticated product in the world. Long-confused with its controversial cousin the Marijuana plant, industrial hemp is now becoming more and more commonly cultivated with only cross-fertilised seed (with negligible amounts of THC—tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) being used.

Hemp is a remarkable plant with a myriad of ecological advantages. It grows quickly, six to sixteen ft tall in 70 to 110 days, shading out weeds and eliminating the need for costly herbicides. During the growing process Hemp pulls carbon out of the air (carbon sequestering) which enhances the quality of air we breathe. Hemp grows deep roots and when harvested the roots and leaves are left to replenish the soil making it arable year after year. Hemp is resistant to pests and therefore does not require the use of pesticides and fungicides. Hemp has never been a genetically modified crop. Every part of the plant is used—fibre, leaf and seed. One acre of hemp is equal to four acres of pulpwood trees.

Hemp has been used for thousands of years by many cultures as a source of sustenance and livelihood; as a food, medicine and raw material.

Hemp nutrition

To attain optimum health we must eat foods that contain live enzymes, active phyto-nutrients, vitamins, minerals, Essential Amino Acids, and Essential Fatty Acids.

These elements are termed “Essential” because the human body does not produce them. They must come from the food we eat. Hemp Seed is one of the plant kingdom’s most concentrated, complete and balanced sources of Essential Amino Acids and Essential Fatty Acids.

Hemp Seeds are rich in essential nutrients including chlorophyll, magnesium, potassium, sulphur, phytosterols, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, calcium, fibre, histidine, iron, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin and thiamine.

Hemp Seed contains all 10 Essential Amino Acids (EAA’s), the building blocks of protein. Shelled Hemp Seed or Hemp Nut contains 34.6% pure digestible protein, providing readily available Amino Acids for building and repairing tissue. Hemp Seed Protein is comprised of 65% high quality Edestin Protein, the most potent protein of any plant source. The Globulin Edestin in Hemp Seed closely resembles the globulin in blood plasma, and is highly compatible with the human digestive system.

Hemp Seed Protein compared to soy, the most commonly used form of supplemental plant protein, has many advantages. Soy protein contains high levels of enzyme inhibitors blocking the uptake of trypsin and other enzymes the body uses for protein digestion. Eating a diet high in enzyme inhibitors, such as those contained in soy, can result in chronic amino acid and protein deficiencies.

Nutritional profile

30 gram Serving (2 scoops) %RDA*
Protein 14g 30%
Total Fat 4g 6%
Omega 6(2% GLA) 2.6g
Omega 3 0.8g
Cholesterol 0g 0%
Saturated 0.5g 3%
Monounsaturated 5.0g 15%
Polyunsaturated 3.4g 85%
Carbohydrates 8g 2%
Sugar 1g <1%
Dietery Fibre 5g 20%
Vitamin A <1%
Vitamin C 1.5%
Vitamin E 33%
Vitamin B6 12%
Sodium <1%
Potassium 20%
Calcium 5%
Magnesium 86%
Iron 35%
*Percent Daily Value based on 2,000 calorie diet

Hemp Seed is rich in Omega 6 and Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) as well as being one of the few plant source of GLAs.

EFAs are utilised by many of the body’s systems to maintain proper tissue function. EFAs are required for energy production, effective functioning of the nervous system, brain development and function, skin health and elasticity, digestive efficiency, normal cardiovascular function, hormone production, and effective immune response.

Due to the popular misconception that fat is “bad” for the body, many people have adopted a low or no fat diet. Low and no fat coupled with the widespread consumption of processed and genetically modified foods have created EFA deficiencies. Supplementation with EFAs is an integral part of a complete nutritional program.

The vital issue with hemp seed, as with any food, is the processing. Traditional processing methods cannot maintain the exceptional nutritional value of hemp seed protein.

A proprietary cold processing method is used to make our hemp protein powder, this keeps enzymes, phyto-nutrients, vitamins and minerals intact.

Our Hemp seed is whole, live, organically grown, non-GM and contains 0.00% THC.

Testimonials

In my personal journey, I have spent a lot of time searching for the best way to empower others. What I have found is that when I feel healthy, I feel great about myself and this naturally empowers those around me.

Why Hemp? Two years ago, I met a new friend who inspired me to question what was driving me in life. The answer was that I wanted to feel good about myself. No, not just good…great! I wanted to feel alive, full of energy and healthy. About a year later, he started a new company named Living Harvest Conscious Nutrition manufacturing health-food products made from raw, organic hemp seed; their flagship product being Hemp Protein Powder. The rest is, as they say, history.

I have now been eating hemp protein for almost a year. I love it! It has become a staple food for me. It has been a major force in dramatically improving my diet and consequently my health and vitality. Most prominently I have noticed an increase in my day-to-day energy levels, I am less prone to shakiness between meals caused by low-blood sugar (hypoglycemia), and it has helped me cut highly refined foods from my diet such as bread, pasta, caffeine and sugar. There is a history of celiac in my family so the latter is especially important; no more stomach pains, gas and bloating–What a godsend!

I highly recommend hemp products for anyone, especially those with sensitivities or allergies to gluten and soy.
Warm regards.

Ashley Webster, President “The Food Sensitivities Market”
www.foodsensitivities.com

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, ‘Where do you get your protein?’ I usually just laugh and say, ‘The same place a gorilla gets his protein.’ Now, I’ll say, ‘From this new 100% raw, vegan, and organic product called ‘Hemp Protein’ — it has 30 grams of protein per serving! I add it to my morning and evening smoothies every day and all I can say is this stuff is a god-send! I can feel myself getting bigger and stronger each day since taking it.

Stephen Arlin, 240-pound raw-food bodybuilder and author of “Raw Power!” and “Nature’s First Law: The Raw-Food Diet”
www.rawfood.com

Recipes

Hemp protein breakfast smoothie

1 banana
1 cup of raspberries, blueberries or strawberries 
½ cup of cashew yogurt or cashew mylk
1 tsp organic, raw maca powder
1½ cups of almond milk or water
2 scoops of organic hemp protein powder
Optional: 1-2 tsps organic raw agave nectar

Just whiz all ingredients in blender…yummy! Makes enough for 2 large glasses.

Mixed berry dream

1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1 frozen banana
2 cups of almond milk
2 tbs of raw chocolate nibs, ground
1 cup of filtered water
2 tbs of cold pressed organic hemp oil
2-4 scoops of organic hemp protein powder

Blend together and enjoy! Serves 4

Rapture with raspberries and ooh more raspberries

2 cups of raspberries
2 cups of almond milk
2 tbs of raw chocolate nibs, ground
1 cup filtered water
2 tbs cold pressed organic hemp oil
2-4 scoops Living Harvest 100% Organic Hemp Protein

Blend until the desired texture. Serves 4

Berry lassie

1 cup mixed berries
1 cup of cashew yogurt or cashew mylk
Filtered water to desired consistency
2 scoops of organic hemp protein powder

Blend. Serves 2

Tropical lassie

1 papaya
1 mango
1 cup of cashew yogurt
Filtered water
2 scoops of organic hemp protein powder

Blend. Serves 2

Hemp…

IS GREAT FOR THOSE WANTING TO STAY IN TIP TOP SHAPE AND HAVE LOTS OF ENERGY. Hemp is the highest vegan source of Edestin, a simple protein that is responsible for us keeping healthy. All of our hemp products are raw, containing live enzymes that help you digest your food, increase your energy, boost your immunity and help your body function at its best.

DETOXIFIES THE BODY & REDUCES JUNK FOOD CRAVINGS: Hemp is high in the natural antioxidants Vitamin E, Vitamin C and chlorophyll. In addition, Hemp is a whole food containing complete and cholesterol-free protein. Proper protein intake is important in maintaining balanced blood sugar, which reduces cravings for sugar and other quick energy junk foods.

BURNS FAT & IS LOVED BY MUSCLY-TYPES: Hemp is recognized by the World Health Organization as having a perfect 3:1 balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids for optimum health. These fats stimulate the body’s natural thermogenic system which actually burns fat. The Essential Fatty Acids in Hemp also help muscle recovery and growth.

EASY TO DIGEST & NON-ALLERGENIC: Hemp does not contain gluten and is free of the enzyme inhibitor found in soy and other legumes and grains which prevent protein absorption and typically cause gas, bloating and other digestion problems. In addition, there are no known allergies to hemp.

What you say

Thank you for amazing service-really quick and efficient. I had my first (hemp protein) smoothie this morning-scrummy! I will be recommending you to clients. 
Kay Scott, Devon, www.intouchdevon.co.uk

Important legal note: Though we are happy to provide products and services which will help you to improve your health and well being, we do not ‘treat’, or aim to ‘cure’ any disease. Under UK law only a medical doctor may ‘treat’ illness and disease with a medical origin. The information in this web page is for information purposes only.

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Dec 17

 

A Relaxed Labor Day

The New York Times – 2006 June
by Elizabeth Olson

Chrissy Jensen and her husband, Chris, took all the usual baby prep classes, including Lamaze, baby care and even infant CPR. But the soon-to-be-mom, who lives in Venice, still felt something was missing.

“I kept saying, these are all great, but where are the classes that prepare your head for this?”

She found her answer when she attended a one-day hypnobirthing class taught by Michelle Leclaire O’Neill, a Pacific Palisades clinical psychologist and registered nurse who is the author of several books on the subject including “Better Birthing With Hypnosis” (Keats Publishing; $16.95).

“I really liked it because it was all about the mind-body connection,” said Jensen, “It wasn’t just about physically giving birth. And it really helped me and my husband stay more focused (during childbirth).”

Although there are other practitioners who use the term, O’Neill developed her Leclaire hypnobirthing method in 1987, using hypnosis and meditation techniques that she’d employed to help cancer patients cope with pain. By teaching pregnant women and their partners how to achieve a hypnotic state where the mind is in deep concentration and the body is relaxed, the goal is to create a “natural physical anesthesia” during labor and delivery.

Hypnobirthing not only helps decrease pain and prenatal anxiety, says O’Neill, but it also allows pregnant women “to have the healthiest experience possible prenatally, in labor and in recovery.” And dads (or whoever else may be the birthing partner) get to realize “they can support the woman by just being present.”

Today, many women are reaching out to hypnobirthing as well as a variety of other drug-free childbirth alternatives, including aromatherapy and birthing pools, according to experts on gynecology and obstetrics. They are inspired by Web sites such as Urbanbaby.com, reality birth television shows like “House of Babies” on the Discovery Health Channel and celebrities including Angelina Jolie, whose sojourn with Brad Pitt in Namibia spurred speculation that they would have their baby using water birthing. Tom Cruise caused a stir when he said Katie Holmes would give birth according to the principles of Scientology – in silence. (He later explained that she could make noise but that others had to be quiet for a calm delivery of their baby, a girl, born on April 18).

While “silent birth” raised eyebrows, even the more widely practiced hypnobirthing still draws its share of skepticism.

“When you hear ‘hypno’, you think weird, hippie, earthy-type stuff,” said Kelly Yeiser, 31, of Ashville, N.C., who had her first baby last August using the technique. “But it’s really more about meditation and getting yourself into a calm, relaxed state.”

Women who have attended classes say a big appeal of hypnobirthing is that it builds confidence and helps banish fears because it focuses on the positive. Jensen said she spend time each day during the last month of her pregnancy listening to a CD that was given to her during O’Neill’s class. Often her husband would join her. “It helped to center me. It also got us to spend time together.”

Obstetricians interviewed said that today’s expectant mothers are more focused on finding new ways to reduce or even eliminate labor and birth pain.

At one end of the spectrum, women are opting for Caesareans in record numbers. According to the National Center of Health Statistics, the combined percentage of women who had C-sections or used drugs to induce labor was about half of the 4.1 million childbirths in 2004.

Of the remaining women, many fear that drugs will hurt their newborns and want a way to avoid them as well as to control the pain. Some of the alternatives they are selecting include water birthing, in which the woman immerses herself in a tub or pool to reduce labor discomfort, and sometimes for the birth.

Another technique is for the woman to change position so she is not always lying down but is sitting on a giant ball, for example. Some women have acupuncture, and others use aromatherapy to create a soothing environment.

The trend is toward non medical methods, said Dr. William Camann, associate professor at Brigham and a women’s Hospital in Boston and co-author of the recently released “Easy Labor, Every Woman’s guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth” (Random House).

Once, he said, “there was no overlap and there tended to be animosity and distrust” between those who espoused natural childbirth and advocates of medical procedures. But that has changed, he added, because women are researching alternatives and finding them on the Internet.

Hospitals today are also more accepting of a woman’s desire to be in control during labor and delivery, Camann said. “There’s been a gradual trend toward acceptance of alternative methods, even though five years ago, asking for a hypnobirh was almost unheard of. Now it’s much more common.”

So, does it work? In 2004, the British Journal of Anesthesia said studies involving 8,000 women found that those who used hypnosis techniques during childbirth rated their pain as less severe than those who did not.

Yeiser of Asheville, whose baby was born after only 2 ½ hours of labor, said, “I was so relaxed that I slept through the first stage of labor.”

While many hospitals now permit hypnobirth, doctors are wary because they fear litigations. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists leaves it up to the individual doctor’s judgment.

Such techniques are not a surefire way to avoid pain but rather “adjuncts and not the end-all to birth,” said Dr. Jeffrey M. Segil, and obstetrician who offers a hypnobirthing option to patients in his practice in Dover, N.H.

“Women should not be set up to feel that they’ve failed if they can’t follow through to a totally natural delivery,” he said.

And after delivery, the technique can still come in handy, says Jensen, who is now happily at home with her 4-month son, Carver.

“After you have a baby, one day can just start to flow into the next. I definitely have listened to the CD a couple of times just to get back to centering myself.”

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Dec 17

HOW HYPNOTHERAPY WORKS

The Process in Four Steps

Picture of Marc Gravelle, C.Ht.Hypnosis Motivation Institute
2007 August 03, Friday by Marc Gravelle
Certified Hypnotherapist and Instructor

The typical client who comes to a hypnotherapist is a well functioning person who wants to change or improve something in their life, but hasn’t been able to affect that change on their own. There are hundreds (and counting) of applications of the process of hypnotherapy.

Let’s use procrastination (of doing paperwork) as an example of a common hypnotherapy client. The process is basically four steps:

1. The hypnotherapist explains their behavior to them.

What this really means is that the hypnotherapist exposes the subconscious motivators of the client’s behavior. In the case of procrastination (of paperwork), the subconscious explanation would be to recognize that we all (as humans) operate on what’s known as the Pain/Pleasure Principle. Freud was the first to recognize this. This principal is that we all (as humans) seek things that are pleasurable and we avoid things we find painful (or fearful). Especially if if the perception of the activity is painful. So a behavioral, or subconscious, definition of procrastination is that it is AVOIDANCE, due to some perceived pain or fear. It’s human nature to procrastinate.

2. The hypnotherapist then creates or describes a strategy for change.

This means a real plan in which the client is an active participant. In observation of Einstein’s definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results) this plan is to do something differently.

In the case of procrastination, a new strategy would be to alter or change the perception of the pain (or drudgery of paperwork). We could do this by agreeing to limit the amount of time the client actually does the paperwork. For instance, if the client used a simple kitchen timer, sets it, (say for 20 minutes), and then takes a break, their perception of the drudgery would change and they would more likely to actually do some paperwork. The strategy becomes “chip away at it, you don’t have to do it all at once.”

3. The third step involves the hypnotherapist helping the client become suggestible, or receptive to the new strategy.

Hypnosis is something that is little understood by the general public. That it is misrepresented in film, media and by stage hypnotists further distorts the general public’s understanding of what it really is. An accurate way to think of what hypnosis is, is that it is a state of mind of increased suggestibility, or receptivity to the verbal suggestion given by the hypnotherapist. The client remains consciously aware. Hypnosis is also a very natural state of mind. For instance, anyone who falls asleep has to enter a light state of hypnosis in order to attain unconscious sleep (we drift into sleep).

The hypnotherapist guides the client into this state of mind by suggesting that the client experience a series of body changes (such as the breathing growing deeper, a little dryness forming in the mouth and throat, and a little fluttering of the closed eyelids). Once the client experiences those body changes, the hypnotherapist will then help the client relax the muscle groups of their body (still very conscious). When the client is relaxed in their body yet still alert in their mind they enter that state of mind of increased suggestibility. At this point the hypnotherapist will verbally repeat the important parts of the new strategy, such as “we want you to make short periods of paperwork a priority in you’re life. Knowing that you will limit these periods to just 20 minutes, makes it easier and more doable than in the past.”

Visualization is another suggestive technique. The hypnotherapist may have the client visualize doing the paperwork while feeling relaxed, hearing the timer ding, and feeling a little grin or smile beginning to form on their face. That type of suggestion is called an inference. It implies (or infers) that the client will follow through and get some paperwork done.

4. Evaluation

In a subsequent session, the client and hypnotherapist evaluate what change has occurred. Was the client successful by doing some paperwork? If so, the strategy becomes reinforcing the change (or new behavior), and making it stronger and stronger. The ultimate goal (in this case) is to create a new automatic habit of doing paperwork. This modality, or process, has hundreds of applications. Just a few are better study habits, test anxiety, fears and phobias, sales techniques, assertive communication, preparation for childbirth, preparation for surgery, relationship enhancement, happiness, anger management, the list goes on and on, including procrastination.

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Dec 17
Socyberty > Spirituality

Past-Life Regression Therapy

How brave are you??

Past life regression therapy uses an hypnotic technique to take you back to either a previous past-life or the spirit realm.

It allows you to connect with your higher self, spirit guides, deity or the angelic realm, whatever you so wish, will come true.

Past life regression is very real and vivid and many people do have vivid experiences on their first regression, whilst others, may have more subtle or relatively vague experiences. But one things for sure, what ever your experience, it is always memorable.

Regression is extremely useful as it treats a variety of problems, fears, blocks, emotionalissues and helps you gain spiritual insight and inner knowledge.

Retrieving knowledge from your past lives not only allows you to discover and explore your inner self and past lives, it also aids spiritual development, growth and understanding in this life time and allows you to access your akashic records and re-write them if you so desire.

A typical regression session will use different visualizaton techniques for retrieval of your memories from this lifetime or previous lifetimes, as well as using methods to access spiritual states and inner wisdom.

It is a wonderful experience and will release all negative thoughts, feelings and emotions; replacing them with positive energy, peace, wisdom, love and joy.

For further information  ’Regression to times and places’ Brain L. Weiss, M.D. Best selling author of ‘Many lives, many masters and mirrors of time,

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Dec 9

The following is a persuasive speech presented in class on 11/25/2008 by Lauren Nicole Mills.

If I were to ask you if you would consciously choose to eat food that was potentially toxic, possibly contributes to new diseases and may contribute to health challenges within various organ systems in your body I hope you would at least think about it. Most importantly, don’t you think you should be informed so that you could make the decision whether you wanted to consume these foods or not.

Statistics presented by Jeffrey Smith author of the books “Seeds of Deception” and “Genetic Roulette” say that 70% of the food that the public is consuming is contributing to the detriment of health and the culprit that these foods have in common is called GMO’s or genetically modified organisms. 60% of the public is not even aware that they have been eating GM foods. For the sake of health, wellness, longevity and most importantly for ethical reasons I believe that it is imperative that you should know more about GMOs. I strongly oppose the use of GMO’s without public consent and awareness because the public is unknowingly consuming products that may be harmful for them.  It is my intention to share some information on what you need to know about Genetically Modified Organisms, some current ethical issues that surround the use of GMOs and finally offer you solutions to help you avoid consuming GMOs. You are after all what you eat and should you have a choice and knowingness of what you are really consuming.

First lets talk about what GMO’s actually are.

According to thegoodhuman.com, GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. The most frequent use of the term GMO is in relation to the food that we eat, in that many crops and factory-made foods are created from genetically modified ingredients. Genes from other plants, viruses, bacteria, animals, etc. are inserted into the genes of certain products such as corn to make them more stable and resistant to drought, disease and pesticides. This sounds great in theory however, the most serious issue affecting the use of biotechnology is that there is simply no regulations that surround the use of GMO’s, companies are not even required to label their products. Nor is there any long term studies on the use of GMOs since it is a relatively new technology. According to Jonathan Campbell in his article “50 Harmful Effects of Genetically Modified Foods” as well as other sources site, there are no regulations on GMO’s because the FDA only requests that firms conduct their own tests of new GM products. Not only are GMOs unregulated, but at the same time they are mutating genes which are contributing to health issues like serious allergens, both human and animals immune systems are vulnerable to these new genes, and these Mutations may be able to travel internally to other cells, tissue systems and organs throughout the body, and create issues like allergies, sterility and possibly illness. Why are there no regulations? George Bush senior, receives the credit, since it was his administration that supported the birth of biotechnology in 1992, and put a policy in place that ordered the FDA to promote the biotech industry not question it.

Lets move on to ethical issues that surround the use of GMO’s.

The implication of GMO’s not only affects health, but the environment, farming practices and issues of freedom of choice. These are only  a few examples of the ethical violations in question, but hopefully you will get a better understanding of the possible repercussions. One issue with GMO crops is that the new genes are often spread accidentally and unknowingly to other non-GMO commercial fields. An example of this according to responsibletechnology.org Organic canola farmers in Canada sued biotech companies, since cross-pollination has made it impossible for them to grow organic, non-GM canola. The use of GMO’s is also affecting other countries.  According to Andrew Malone, November 3, 2008 thousands of Indian farmers in India are committing suicide after using genetically modified seeds. Millions of Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if they switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead. GM salesmen and government officials assured farmers that these ‘magic seeds’ – would generate crops that would be free from parasites and insects. Far from being ‘magic seeds’, GM pest-proof ‘breeds’ of cotton have been devastated by bollworms, and due to the lack of rain because GM seeds require double the amount of water, many GM crops have simply withered and died, leaving the farmers with crippling debts and no means of paying them off. 125,000 farmers reported have chosen to drink insecticide, a slow and painful death rather the try to find another way out of debt. Many European countries have restrictions and regulations on the use of GMO’s the US does not.

This leads me to what are GMO foods and how to avoid them.

The best way to avoid GMO foods is to buy organic food or products that specifically say non GMO. The big 4 GMO products are soy, corn, cotton and canola. So anything with these ingredients that you would buy at the grocery store most likely contains GMO’s. Corn syrup, soy sauce, non organic soy products, cottonseed oil, corn starch, sunflower oil are just a few of the by-products. The best way to avoid consuming GMOs is to avoid mainstream products that include these ingredients. Another thing you can do is get a food guide from www.centerforfoodsafety.org which has a list of companies that do not use GMO and lists the companies who may use GMO’s.

I hope you have a better understanding of how the use GMO products is a serious concern not only to our country but the world at large. I have explained what GMOs are, ethics that hold GMOs in question and I have given you information on what you can do to limit and avoid the consumption of GMOs. The best thing you can do for interest of your health, well-being and longevity is to research for yourself and determine if consuming GMO’s is right for you. I read in my studies If only 5% of our population consciously chooses to avoid Genetically modified products that this would send a strong message to manufactures of genetically modified products. It is necessary for them to know that the implementation of  GMO’s is questionable and that consumers demand accountability. SO you are left with the choice do you choose to consume Genetically Modified products or do you unknowingly allow Genetically Modified products to consume you?

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