By: Marco Torres

The mainstream media and government have peddled the same lame health concerns affecting children for decades. Whether it’s drug abuse, smoking, teen pregnancy, obesity or any other perceived public health threat, no officially recognized health concern affecting children compares to the actual threats which are rarely if ever discussed by public health entities or the mainstream media. The reasons for this convenient ignorance are simple…deception and distraction.

The typical diatribe coming out of government organizations who claim to be enforcing good health and protecting our children is nonsense and always has been. They parrot the same mundane health threats affecting children decade after decade without actually doing anything about them or telling us what actually causes them. They insist things like smoking, drug abuse, obesity, teen pregnancy, bullying and abuse are the top health concerns for children and teens when they are nothing but a miniscule fraction of a threat compared to the following:

1) Vaccines

A German study with 17461 children between 0-17 years of age (KIGGS) showed that 4.7% of vaccinated children suffer from asthma, 10.7% of these children from hayfever and 13.2% from neurodermatitis. These numbers differ in western countries, i.e. the prevalence of asthma among children in the US is 6% whereas it is 14-16% in Australia (Australia’s Health 2004, AIHW). The prevalence of asthma among unvaccinated children in our study is 0.2%, hayfever 1.5% and neurodermatitis 2%.

According to the KIGGS study more than 40% of children between the ages of 3 and 17 years were sensitized against at least one allergen tested (20 common allergens were tested) and 22.9% had an allergic disease. Although we did not perform a blood test, less than 10% stated that their children had an allergy.

Vaccinated children are up to 14 times more likely to have asthma than the unvaccinated and up to nine times more like to have skin problems. http://www.impf-report.de/jahrgang/2005/02.htm#06

An estimated 100-180 Indian children are diagnosed with vaccine-associated polio paralysis (VAPP) each year. In fact, the clinical presentation of the disease, including paralysis, caused by VAPP is indistinguishable from that caused by wild polio viruses.

Vaccines, all vaccines, are immune suppressing; that is they depress our immune functions. The chemicals in the vaccines depress our immune system; the virus present depresses immune function, and the foreign DNA/RNA from animal tissues depresses immunity. Chemical toxicity and depressed immunity likely make vaccines the number one long-term health threat to children.

2) Artificial Sweeteners, Colors, Flavors and Preservatives:

Dangerous food additives are creating a toxic environment for our children’s health spurring allergies and ADHD.

Two recent British studies found that certain food dyes, as well as the common preservative sodium benzoate, may have an adverse effect on some children’s behavior. Researchers said the increase in ADHD diagnoses could be partly to blame on the preservative.

“It can affect their focus, their concentration. They become more easily distractible, become more impulsive. I think we’re looking at a whole population of kids with skewed immune systems,” said Dr. Kenneth Bock, who wrote a book that supports the theory that food additives could lead to hyperactivity in children.

A Southampton Study in the UK showed that additives cause hyperactivity in children within an hour after consumption. Food additives, especially the artificial colors are made from coal tar derivatives and synthetic chemicals. Within an hour of ingestion, hyperactive behavior is evident.

MSG is not a nutrient, vitamin, or mineral and has no health benefits. The part of MSG that negatively affects the human body is the “glutamate”, not the sodium. The breakdown of MSG typically consists of 78% glutamate, 12% sodium, and about 10% water. Any glutamate added to a processed food is not and cannot be considered naturally occurring. Natural glutamate in plants and animals is known as L-glutamic acid.

A study on infant rats showed that administration of MSG lead to five shrunken glands, including the testes. Other studies have shown that growth hormone, thyroid hormones and many other endocrine functions can be assaulted by excitotoxins which may lead to growth retardation of children before the age of puberty.

One study on mice showed that aspartate, the excitotoxin in diet drinks, gum and aspartame, did the same kind of neuronal damage to the hypothalamus that previous studies on glutamate exhibited. This study mentioned that the research showed that excitotoxins lead to “subsequent obesity, skeletal stunting and reduced mass of pituitaries, ovaries and testes. Yes, the research is clear that excitotoxins can literally damage (and reduce in size) the future development of your child’s testes and ovaries.

Colouring agents are derived from coal tar, and nearly all colouring is synthetic. Though some artificial food dyes have been banned because they are believed to cause cancer, most dyes used today are of the artificial variety. They are also linked to allergies, asthmas, and hyperactivity. They have been found to provoke asthma attacks and have links to thyroid tumours. Coincidently, artificial colors are very prevalent in ice cream products which are directly marketed to children. Every single artificial color in the food industry has some kind of detrimental health effect. These include neurotoxicity, organ, developmental, and reproductive toxicity and cancer. Children are being fed these chemicals in such large quantities that they begin to have nervous system malfunctions that ultimately are misdiagnosed as ADHD, learning disabilities, or violent behavior.

As one of the most prolific preservatives in the food industry, it is difficult to find many foods without potassium sorbate. Food and chemical toxicology reports have labeled potassium sorbate as a carcinogen, showing positive mutation results in the cells of mammals. Other studies have shown broad systemic and toxic effects on non-reproductive organs in animals. No long term studies have ever been initiated on either animals or humans, but many suspect the preservative to be toxic to young children.

Sodium Benzoate can convert into lethal carcinogenic poison when combined with absorbic acid. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria. “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.” he stated.

“The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe,” he said. “By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago.”

Sodium Benzoate, as most other preservatives, should not be ingested in any quantity by children, however the toxin is still available in many foods that children ingest.

In the current climate of escalating obesity rates, artificially sweetened soft drinks are marketed to children as healthier alternatives to sugar-sweetened beverages, due to their lack of calories. However, past research has shown very serious long-term health consequences due to highly toxic additives and artificial sweeteners such as sodium benzoate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose and high-fructose corn syrup.

Artificial flavors and colors means it is derived from a chemical made in a laboratory and has no nutritional value. Every single artificial flavor and color in the food industry has some kind of detrimental health effect. These include neurotoxicity, organ, developmental, reproductive toxicity and cancer.

* Examples
– Glutamates
– Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
– Maltodextrin
– Autolyzed Yeast Extract
– Disodium Guanylate
– Disodium Inosinate
– Blue 1, Blue 2
– Yellow 5, Yellow 6
– Red 3, Red 40

3) Genetically Modified Foods:

Genetically Modified (GM) foods are likely the single biggest threat to humanity in the coming decades and certainly a threat to the health of future generations. If you’re new to the dangers of GM foods this article “The 7 Biggest Reasons To Never Eat Genetically Modified Foods” sums up the reasons to stay away from them. Problem is, they’re everywhere and it’s almost impossible to escape from them.

GM foods pose a threat to the environment, polluting the fertile soils of the world with unnatural genetic material that may have unknown long-term consequences. Cross-pollination with non-GM crops, monoculture practices and the liberal use of chemical pesticides alongside GM crops are just a few of the serious threats to sustainable life on Earth posed by food scientists playing God with seeds.

Researchers have found clear links among the consumption of GM-corn and immunological alterations in the gut and the exacerbation and creation of allergies which more children are suffering from every year.

GM Foods causes allergies, organ damage, cancer, immunotoxicty, and damaging transgenes which affect future generations. Many fruits and vegetables for sale in the U.S. are already genetically modified.

The data from comprehensive studies on GM corn “clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system,” reported Gilles-Eric Seralini, a molecular biologist at the University of Caen.

Ninety-nine percent of GMO crops either tolerate or produce insecticide which also damage a child’s health. This may be the reason we see bee colony collapse disorder and massive butterfly deaths. If GMOs are wiping out Earth’s pollinators, they are far more disastrous than the threat they pose to future generations of all humans and other mammals.

Children who consume the processed foods with the following are likely consuming ingredients that are GM.

* Examples
– Corn flour, meal, oil, starch, gluten, and syrup
– Corn Sweeteners such as fructose, dextrose, and glucose
– Modified food starch
– Soy flour, lecithin, protein, isolate, and isoflavone
– Most vegetable oils and vegetable proteins
– Canola oil (also called rapeseed oil)
– Cottonseed oil
– Anything not listed as 100% cane sugar

4) Environmental Toxins:

BPA, fluoride, parabens, phthalates, PFOA, fiberglass, oxybenzone, BHA and dozens of other chemicals makes up a very long laundry list of environmental toxins affecting every household. Combine this with geoengineering intiatives polluting the entire atmosphere with toxins, and you have a toxic planet from soil to sky.

Developing children are at even greater risk than adults for harm from the above chemicals. There toxic effects are far reaching affecting almost every body system.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered that exposure during pregnancy to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastics, causes permanent abnormalities in the uterus of offspring, including alteration in their DNA.

Fluoride alters the minds and brains of children. There has been considerable research done on fluoride regarding cancer, birth defects, and risks to the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary systems, however, very little has been done on its neurological effects.

For years, experts have been warning women about some very toxic ingredients the cosmetic industry uses which put users at risk of cancer and hormonal changes. A number of studies since 1998 have raised concerns about the potential role of these parabens in breast cancer as they possess estrogenic properties.

“We have to do a better job at protecting the health of our children, but we also have to do a better job of protecting the women that feed our children, especially in their first year of life,” said Patricia Ongo a breastfeeding specialist.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is another extremely toxic and persistent contaminant in groundwater. Many states are exposed to much higher concentrations of the notorious Teflon chemical under a proposed state regulations that allow unsafe levels of the contaminant in drinking water, scientists at Environmental Working Group (EWG) have warned.

Phthalates are a group of chemical compounds that occur in construction materials and a great number of common consumer goods such as toys, cleaning solvents, packaging, etc. Phthalates are suspected of disrupting hormones, premature births and may be related to several chronic diseases in children, like asthma and allergies, as shown in earlier studies.

A whistleblower and former hazardous materials expert recently exposed the shocking and under-reported evidence that attenuated fiberglass, the kind used to insulate your home and found in countless consumer products, is more carcinogenic than asbestos.

Synthetic preservatives, such as BHA and butylhydroxytoluene (BHT), used to slow down the oxidative deterioration of food are toxic nightmares for children. They used in everything from orange juice to butter, cereals and snack foods. These chemicals are lethal to the health and long-term development of children’s hormonal regulation and brain.

5) Mainstream Medicine:

Perhaps the biggest health myth today (although more people are catching on) is the public’s misconception that mainstream medicine and the healthcare system helps sick children. Nothing could be further from the truth since physicians and psychiatrists alone are extremely dangerous to the health of children. They are the ones that prescribe the dangerous medications, vaccines, antibiotics, and debilitating psychotic drugs.

90 percent of all diseases (cancer, diabetes, depression, heart disease, etc.) are easily preventable through diet, nutrition, sunlight and exercise. None of these solutions are rarely if ever promoted by conventional medicine to parents and their children because they make no money.

One can only hope that a child does not contract cancer as physicians only have one tool for that–cut, poison and burn via surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

No pharmaceuticals actually cure or resolve the underlying causes of disease. Even “successful” drugs only manage symptoms, usually at the cost of interfering with other precious physiological functions in young bodies that will cause side effects down the road. There is no such thing as a drug without a side effect.

Mainstream medicine is the leading cause of death in the United States. They recruit children into the system when they are young and vulnerable and they attempt to keep them as life-long clients as they age.

This is sad statement–but if we continue on the same cycle, without initiating some sort intervention to reverse the above health threats, there will only be one way to keep children free from toxicity…take them off the planet.

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Marco Torres is a research specialist, writer and consumer advocate for healthy lifestyles. He holds degrees in Public Health and Environmental Science and is a professional speaker on topics such as disease prevention, environmental toxins and health policy.

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TLB recommends you visit Prevent Disease for more pertinent articles and information.

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