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Canada to outlaw Natural Products?? or Shame on Canada for Bill C-51

What the heck is going on? I was so proud for living here, in Canada, where people’s rights are respected. Not anymore.
I have the right to chose what I believe is good for me and my family. I don’t want or need Big Pharma to tell me what I have to put into my body.
If I don’t want to give my kid antibiotics, I want to have the option of a natural way to enhance his immunity by giving him natural supplements. But it looks like the big pharmaceutical companies are feeling that their profits are not big enough, so they decided to change the legislation.

Here comes Johhhnnnyyy!!!!

A new law being pushed in Canada by Big Pharma seeks to outlaw up to 60 percent of natural health products currently sold in Canada, even while criminalizing parents who give herbs or supplements to their children. The law, known as C-51, was introduced by the Canadian Minister of Health on April 8th, 2008, and it proposes sweeping changes to Canada’s Food and Drugs Act that could have devastating consequences on the health products industry.

Among the changes proposed by the bill are radical alterations to key terminology, including replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic product” throughout the Act, thereby giving the Canadian government broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins, supplements and other items. With this single language change, anything that is “therapeutic” automatically falls under the Food and Drug Act. This would include bottled water, blueberries, dandelion greens and essentially all plant-derived substances.

The Act also changes the definition of the word “sell” to include anyone who gives such therapeutic products to someone else. So a mother giving an herb to her child, under the proposed new language, could be arrested for engaging in the sale of unregulated, unapproved “therapeutic substances.” Learn about more of these freedom-squashing changes to the law at the Stop51.com website: http://www.stopc51.com

New enforcement powers allow Canadian government to seize your home or business

At the same time that C-51 is outlawing herbs, supplements and vitamins, it would grant alarming new “enforcement” powers to the thugs enforcement agents who claim to be “protecting” the public from dangerous unapproved “therapeutic agents” like, say, dandelion greens. As explained on the http://www.Educate-Yourself.orgwebsite ((http://educate-yourself.org/cn/canadian…), the C-51 law would allow the Canadian government’s thugsenforcement agents to:

• Raid your home or business without a warrant
• Seize your bank accounts
• Levy fines up to $5 million and a jail terms up to 2 years for merely selling an herb
• Confiscate your property, then charge you storage fees for the expense involved in storing all the products they stole from you

C-51 would even criminalize the simple drying of herbs in your kitchen to be used in an herbal product, by the way. That would now be categorized as a “controlled activity,” and anyone caught engaging in such “controlled activities” would be arrested, fined and potentially jailed. Other “controlled activities” include labeling bottles, harvesting plants on a farm, collecting herbs from your back yard, or even testing herbal products on yourself! (Yes, virtually every activity involving herbs or supplements would be criminalized…)

There’s more, too. C-51 is the Canadian government’s “final solution” for the health products industry. It’s a desperate effort to destroy this industry that’s threatening the profits and viability of conventional medicine.

Natural medicine works so well—and is becoming so widely used—that both the Canadian and American governments have decided to “nuke” the industries by passing new laws that effectively criminalize anyone selling such products. They simply cannot tolerate allowing consumers to have continued access to natural products. To do so will ultimately spell the destruction of Big Pharma and the outdated, corrupt and criminally-operated pharmaceutical industry that these criminally-operated governments are trying to protect.
Join the rally to protest C-51

On May 9th, 2008, Canadian citizens will be gathering at the Calgary Federal Court to protest C-51 and help protect their access to natural health products. Call 1-888-878-3467 to learn more, or visit the action page of Health Canada Exposed at: www.stopc51.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Source: www.globalresearch.com

I am totally and utterly disgusted. We have the option of buying natural products; nobody forces us to do it. And we do buy them because they are better than the drugs that have a gazillion of side effects which makes you think twice if you are going to take them or not.
Comm’on, you turn on the TV and at least one commercial is about drugs. If you pay a little bit of attention, by the end of the peachy-nice-living-on-could-nine presentation, the voice will tell something like:”the side effects include” and a long list follows. Then you put in balance two options: deal with your illness or face the risk of dying of hemorrhage or other nasty side effects of the drug? I am not absurd, there are situations when you have to take drugs and not follow the natural way. But for minor cases, why would the government take our right to chose? Just because the big pharmaceutical companies want more money?

I remember when a few years ago, some guys started the ‘organic’ business. The hell broke loose, with the food giants screaming bloody murder and the small ‘organic’ entrepreneurs forced to fight the bureaucratic system trying to sell their products.
Now it gained popularity because it is better for your health to eat meat without hormones and antibiotics, or vegetables not treated with pesticides.

Shame for the Canadian government for even taking into account the proposal dubbed Bill C-51 and damn you for getting your conscience bought with dirty money. Would you go so far as to ‘criminalize’ parents for giving natural products?
What about criminalizing parents who sexually abuse their kids??!!
What’s wrong with this freaking society??!!!!!!!

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Would you really try Botox?

As a child I remember hearing once in a while that somebody died because of botulism, and without knowing at that time if that was a poison or an infection, but knowing that in almost all the cases it was associated with fish, I developed a slight paranoia fish- related.
Later on, after I took some courses in Bacteriology, I found out that botulism is caused by Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum), which is a bacterium that inhabits rivers, soil, and the guts of mammals, fish, and shellfish worldwide. These bacteria secrete a neurotoxin (nerve poison) so deadly that a few billionths of a gram could kill you. This is botulin toxin, one of the most dangerous substances known. Botulism is the condition of having been poisoned with botulin toxin.
The most common botulism occurs via food, not only fish. Most food-borne botulism is attributed to home-canned foods and it can also be transmitted by foods that are not heated, or not heated thoroughly, before eating. Almost every type of food has been associated with outbreaks of botulism, but the most commonly implicated foods are vegetables, particularly “low-acid” (i.e., higher pH) vegetables such as beans, peppers, carrots, and corn. Botulism has been related to honey as well, this being the main reason for not recommending honey to infants.

All right, so we know that botulin toxin is dangerous, and even more, it can be developed into a biological weapon.
In February 28, 2001, there was an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, titled ‘Botulinum Toxin as a Biological Weapon’
An abstract from the article, reads:

“Botulinum toxin poses a major bioweapon threat because of its extreme potency and lethality; its ease of production, transport, and misuse; and the need for prolonged intensive care among affected persons. An outbreak of botulism constitutes a medical emergency that requires prompt provision of botulinum antitoxin and, often, mechanical ventilation, and it constitutes a public health emergency that requires immediate intervention to prevent additional cases. Timely recognition of a botulism outbreak begins with an astute clinician who quickly notifies public health officials.
Botulinum toxin is the most poisonous substance known. A single gram of crystalline toxin, evenly dispersed and inhaled, would kill more than 1 million people, although technical factors would make such dissemination difficult. The basis of the phenomenal potency of botulinum toxin is enzymatic; the toxin is a zinc proteinase that cleaves 1 or more of the fusion proteins by which neuronal vesicles release acetylcholine into the neuromuscular junction.
It is regrettable that botulinum toxin still needs to be considered as a bioweapon at the historic moment when it has become the first biological toxin to become licensed for treatment of human disease. In the United States, botulinum toxin is currently licensed for treatment of cervical torticollis, strabismus, and blepharospasm associated with dystonia. It is also used “off label” for a variety of more prevalent conditions that include migraine headache, chronic low back pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, achalasia, and various dystonias.
Terrorists have already attempted to use botulinum toxin as a bioweapon. Aerosols were dispersed at multiple sites in downtown Tokyo, Japan, and at US military installations in Japan on at least 3 occasions between 1990 and 1995 by the Japanese cult Aum Shinriky . These attacks failed, apparently because of faulty microbiological technique, deficient aerosol-generating equipment, or internal sabotage. The perpetrators obtained their C botulinum from soil that they had collected in northern Japan.”

After this long introduction let’s get to the question: knowing all that, are you still interested in trying Botox injections to get rid- temporarily- of wrinkles?
I had a friend who tried it and I was not impressed with the results. After getting Botox injections you look like you are wearing a mask; you can’t smile let alone laugh.
Even if it’s a cheapest alternative to an expensive plastic surgery, it is still bringing the question: is it worth poisoning yourself for the sake of looking a little bit younger?

Recently, FDA ( Food and Drug Administration) warned over Botox’s side effects, including possible deaths. Although the FDA has never formally approved that use for the drugs, some other countries have.
The warning includes both Botox Cosmetic and its competitor, Myobloc, both of them using botulinum toxin to block nerve impulses, causing them to relax.
In rare cases, the toxin can spread beyond the injection site to other parts of the body, paralyzing or weakening the muscles used for breathing and swallowing, a potentially fatal side effect, the FDA said.
The FDA said the deaths it is investigating so far all involve children, mostly cerebral palsy patients being treated for spasticity in their legs.
However, the FDA warned that it also is probing reports of illnesses in people of all ages who used the drugs for a variety of conditions, including at least one hospitalization of a woman given Botox for forehead wrinkles. The agency warned that patients receiving a botulinum toxin injection for any reason — cosmetic or medical — should be told to seek immediate care if they suffer symptoms of botulism, including: difficulty swallowing or breathing, slurred speech, muscle weakness, or difficulty holding up their head.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to strengthen warnings to users of Botox and Myobloc — citing 180 reports of U.S. patients suffering fluid in the lungs, difficulty swallowing or pneumonia, including 16 deaths.


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Practical approach to losing weight

Over the past five years, but who’s counting?, I have tried a few diets, some of them more successful than others.
What seemed to work for a while was avoiding the wrong combination of foods. But it was a short term success.
To lose weight and keep it like that, you have to entirely change your life. Unfortunately, growing old it’s adding new elements into equation: metabolism slow down along with hormonal changes.
What was reasonably easy to do when you were young, it’s ten times more difficult to do it when you are 40-ish.

I realized that I have to take a logical and practical approach to develop a weight loss program that will work for me.

Step nr. 1: Calculate the calories intake based on your age, gender, frame
First of all, I wanted to find out how many calories I should eat every day, based on my physical frame and age.
I went to: http://mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598 and entered my data.
The result: I was supposed to eat 1200 per day.
I am pretty sure that I eat much more than that, so it’s no wander I keep piling up kilograms.
Let’s say that I do eat 1200 calories. That will help me shed some pounds, but after that I will reach the dreadful plateau.
What to do next?
Well, the next logical step is to change the energy balance.

Step nr. 2: Changing the energy balance
Energy balance is the difference between calorie intake (from food & drinks) and calories out – through our metabolism & energy expended during daily activities. In order to lose fat weight, our body needs to be in a negative energy balance.
But to do that, we have to add exercise in our daily routine. Why? Because just reducing the calories intake we are not going to lose much before the body will get into ‘starvation mode’ and start preserving the fat already stored, at the expense of losing muscle (the body needs proteins to function normally and this is the first available source if we don’t provide it via food).
Some people say that eating negative calorie fruits and vegetables may help you lose weight, other dismiss the ‘negative calorie’ theory as rubbish.
But if you believe in the negative theory approach, than add the following vegetables in your diet: asparagus, fennel, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumber, cauliflower, peppers, radish, spinach, tomato, and turnip. With a proper protein added to the above vegetables, you can actually have a nutritious diet.
Because it’s healthy to eat fruits, what about adding the negative calorie ones?
Here is the list: apricot, mandarin orange, blackberry, cantaloupe, peaches, plums, raspberry, grapefruit, rhubarb, guava, strawberry, tangerine, lemon, watermelon.
Combining negative calorie foods with good protein sources not only helps control appetite but will help maintain the metabolism because total calories are not cut too much, plus the amino acid pool is maintained which limits the loss of muscle.

3. Develop a realistic meal and exercise plan
This is the most important step.
In order to lose 1 pound of fat a week, you have to create a calorie deficit of 3500 per week. That means 500 calories per day.
How are you going to do that?
The balanced way is to cut 250 calories from your food intake and burn another 250 through exercise.
If you eat an already balanced meal of 1200 calories (or whatever the calculator will indicate for you taking into account age, gender, frame), then you have to exercise extra to burn 500 calories.
From my experience: walking on treadmill, for 25 minutes, at 3.5 miles/hour and 4.5 steep, I burn 200 calories. Meaning that I have to increase the walking time or the difficulty level, to burn 250 calories.
I can throw in working on my Bowflex and playing ping-pong with my husband. If I manage to alternate these activities, along with eating properly, I believe I would be on the right track.
And sauna!
Just keep in mind that a healthy weight loss goal is to lose .5 to 2 pounds per week.
My goal is to lose at least 15 pounds until summer. Being in April, that leaves me with about 3 months of work and about 5 pounds per month.

In order to find out how much I eat, I must keep a journal, at least in the beginning.
And I have to reevaluate the meal size, or how big a serving really is.

4. Understanding the serving size
Let’s start by saying that a healthy eating approach should include daily:

Fats, Oils and Sweets – use sparingly.
Milk, Yogurt, Cheese – 2 to 3 servings.
Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Nuts, Eggs – 2 to 3 servings.
Vegetables – 3 to 5 servings.
Fruits – 2 to 3 servings.
Grains, Bread, Cereal, Rice, Pasta – 6 to 11 servings

If you are a middle aged woman- like I am- then target the lower end of the serving suggestion.

How big a serving is?
dairy group – 1 cup 2%, 1 cup yogurt, 1 1/2 oz of cheese
protein group – 2-3 oz. of meat, 1/2 cup cooked dry beans
vegetable group – 1/2 cup of cooked or raw cut up, 1 cup raw leafy
fruit group – medium sized piece of fruit or 1/2 cup cut up, 3/4 cup of juice
grain group — a serving is 1/2 cup of cooked pasta or rice, 1 slice of bread, 1 oz. dry cereal

Knowing how big the serving is, you have to take into account the calories and create your own regime.