California Raw Milk Act of 2008

My friends and family know that I am not a fan of milk, nor do I think people should drink it on a daily basis. Thanks to the pasteurization process, the milk on today’s grocery shelves is devoid of any worthwhile vitamins, minerals, enzymes, or probiotics (with the exception of the synthetic Vitamin D that is added after processing). Plus, if your milk is not organic, it is filled with the residue of numerous antibiotics, pesticides, fertilizers and high amounts of synthetic estrogen (that your body recognizes as the real thing) from the growth hormones. In addition, the majority of people are lactose intolerant—for good reason, as adults are not supposed to be drinking milk—we got over that as a baby.

However, milk can be a very nutritious supplement to your diet if it has never gone through the damaging, high temperature pasteurization process. Raw milk is not only chock full of nutrients like calcium, but also the magnesium to support that calcium, and tons of very beneficial probiotics that help keep your intestines healthy and immune system strong. Numerous people have had health problems alleviated by switching to raw dairy.

Currently, raw milk is available in California in certain natural food stores or through dairy farm cooperatives, but it is expensive, obscure and there is no real standard of regulation. If purchasing raw dairy, it is very important that it comes from an impeccably clean facility with strict handling procedures.

The Fresh Raw Milk Act of 2008, Senate Bill 201, creates a new system for the regulation of raw milk. It will pioneer regulations that will ensure the safety of the products on the market, and not only give the opportunity to other dairy farms to clean up their act and participate in raw dairy market, but also give us the right to choose raw milk. Show your support of this ground breaking bill by calling the Governor Schwarzenegger’s office at 916-445-2841, or fax to 916-558-3160.

If you don’t live in California, but support the bill, call anyway! Remember, after a precedent is set, other states will follow suit. Let’s finally get some healthy milk on the shelves!

Holistic Moms Network

I just came across a great article on a fairly new organization, Holistic Moms Network (HMN), designed to create a community of like-minded parents who want to learn more about raising their children naturally. There are currently about 100 local chapters across the US, where parents get together to discuss things like vegetable juicing, breast feeding, conflict resolution, herbal remedies, composting, and more. But the main emphasis is always on living a healthier lifestyle for the whole family.

From the purpose statement on the HMN website:

We are dedicated to working with moms to create local chapters in their communities that will provide them with a happy, healthy forum for their mothering styles and that will bring them together in an environment that respects and honors their lifestyle and parenting choices.

Membership is $45 a year for the entire family, and there are monthly meetings or events like organic potluck meals or field trips. Dads and kids are always welcome to every meeting. There is always an educational component, like guest speakers, demonstrations and discussions on current hot topics.

I am so pleased to see an organization like this take off. No matter how healthy each of us tries to be in our own life, real change won't happen unless we start raising our kids and teaching them healthy lifestyles. This is particularly important now, with the unbelievably high rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, and ADHD. I think it is also very important to create this "support group" for moms that know they want to do things differently, but might not have the support of friends and family. I know there are moms out there that are surrounded by soda drinking, candy, chip and pop tart eating families, and know it's not good for their child. But it's hard to break out be different; especially if they make fun of you for it. If you are one of those mothers, please look into the Holistic Mothers Network and get some support for what you already know is better.

If you are interested in more information, or would like to join or start a local chapter of HMN, please go to their website:
http://www.holisticmoms.org/

You can't always believe the studies...

Unfortunately, I am fairly jaded when it comes to the American medical community and their "research".  However, when I come across information like this, I am still shocked at the lengths they will go to discredit natural remedies. Below is an excerpt from an article on a recent study about the effects of treating children with ADHD and the herb St. John's Wort. To make matters worse, the study was actually led by a Bastyr (the top Naturopathic University in the US) graduate--and seems all for discrediting an herb "in the name of science" and padded pockets.

Flawed St. John's Wort Study on ADHD Failed to Use Active Form of Herbal Extract
On the heels of shocking revelations that top psychiatric research Dr. Joseph Biederman secretly took $1.6 million from drug companies while conducting psychotropic drug experiments on children, it has been learned that Dr. Biederman is now one of the key collaborators behind the latest efforts to discredit St. John's Wort. In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and widely reported in the mainstream media, Dr. Biederman and fellow cohorts "concluded" that the St. John's Wort herb is useless in treating ADHD in children.

What's astonishing about this study, as you'll learn in this article, is that all the children used in the study were given inactive forms of the St. John's Wort herb where the active ingredients had been oxidized and rendered useless! In other words, this clinical trial, which was widely reported in the mainstream media with headlines like "St. John's Wort Found Useless!" didn't test the herb's active ingredients at all! It sort of makes you wonder about the agenda of the people running the study, doesn't it?

It goes on to say:

A Disturbing Trend: Bastyr Naturopaths Partner with Dr. Biederman to Discredit Herbs
There's another disturbing trend in all this. The St. John's Wort study was led by Wendy Weber, ND, a graduate of Bastyr University. Bastyr is an "integrative medicine" med school that teaches drug-based medicine combined with more natural modalities. It's one of the top three naturopathic schools in the U.S., and yet to learn that one of its graduates is now collaborating with a psychiatric drug pusher who has been paid $1.6 million by drug companies is more than a bit disturbing.

It indicates that this Bastyr graduate either has no idea about the true agenda of the people she's working with or that she doesn't mind that agenda. Either way, she sort of ends up looking rather silly with her name positioned above the scandalous Dr. Joseph Biederman, a widely-hated Big Pharma disease monger who will hopefully soon be arrested and prosecuted as a common criminal for conducting medical experiments on four-year old children.

In the world of naturopathy, by the way, there is quite a chasm between the more "conventional" N.D.s (like Bastyr graduates) and the holistic, natural, salt-of-the-Earth kind of naturopathic healers who have no sponsoring institution. The Bastyrs of the world are working hard to get naturopathic medical practice legalized in many states, but they're also disliked by the non-accredited naturopaths who end up being labeled criminals for practicing their own brand of natural medicine in those same states.
Many non-accredited naturopaths insist that Bastyr is just a "green" replacement for organized medicine's tyranny. Without a doubt, when people see Bastyr graduates collaborating with top psychiatric drug pushers on a study that clearly seeks to discredit a valuable herb, it just fans the flames of dissent against Bastyr among more holistic practitioners.

If you would like to read the entire article, here is the link:http://www.vitalisnews.com/are_you_an_early_bird_or_a_night_owl.htm