Reality Or Nostalgia

Occasionally I stumble upon a Romanian social media post that is entertaining and educational as it reveals a lot about the current culture trends in that country and how much people’s views have changed since I left more than four decades ago. Not unlike here in the U.S., total strangers with skewed, limited, and often nostalgic viewpoints, under the perceived cloak of anonymity, fight vehemently on diverse topics they know little about but are convinced they are experts on the topic.

This time an exceptionally large and belligerent group was fighting over tomatoes grown in developing countries on an industrial scale which taste like cardboard versus the home-grown varieties that taste like heaven and are juicy. It appeared that such a mundane topic would be simple and non-confrontational, yet it devolved into fighting and name-calling pretty fast.

Some posters were nostalgic over the tomatoes grown during the communist regime which one said tasted divine because they never used any pesticides or fertilizers. I know that they used massive amounts of DDT on everything to kill many pests, including the Colorado beetle which loved potatoes and tomatoes and could destroy a crop quite fast. Gardeners and co-operative farms also used sacks and sacks of other pesticides and fertilizers to promote plant growth and higher crop yield.

I do not think there was one household in the 1970s that did not own a Flit gun filled with pesticides against flies, mosquitoes, and other pests.

Home gardens in the country used manure as fertilizer. The huge downside of home gardens was the nearby location to the unsanitary outhouses with flies buzzing everywhere. There was no plumbing or running water in the country during Ceausescu’s communist regime.

City residents did not have gardens as they lived tightly packed in concrete grey apartment complexes. A few people raised geraniums or tomato plants on the balcony of their tiny apartments. If they had relatives living in the nearby village, they had a chance at some fresh produce or buying them at the farmers’ market where prices were much higher than the state-owned stores.

Fruits were generally full of fruit fly worms and flies were everywhere. We actually had paper fly swatters made with long shredded strips of paper that made a swishing noise when shaken and dangling glue boards for the flies. If we did not, we could not even eat without being attacked by swarms of them. The buzzing was annoying, and they could fly into your mouth if you were not careful. Apartments did not have screens on windows to protect us from flies.

My friend, Joe Keller, has a “delightful” story about wormy cherries he bought in a local farmers’ market in Bucharest, Romania, when stationed at the Embassy there. They were trying to have snacks during the intermission of the Friday night movie viewing, and, to their horror, the worms decided to escape the cherries and were crawling all over the kitchen table.

It is true that a tomato grown organically in a private garden tastes divine but today the actual varieties of tomatoes sold are hybrids engineered to resist drought, pests, and fungi. They stay fresh and tasteless for a long time in the fridge or on a shelf. The tomato varieties of four decades ago were quite different than those grown today.

Then the discussion diverged from tomatoes to cancer-causing foods today. Apparently, the nostalgic ones remembered incorrectly that “cancers were unknown then and nobody stood in line at pharmacies to buy drugs like they do today.”  I was not surprised that some of these people seemed to have selective memory, historical ignorance, or bad cases of misplaced nostalgia.

I know many people and relatives who had died of various cancers or simple treatable illnesses because there were no drugs on the market, no chemo, no radiation, no insulin, no antibiotics except on rare occasions penicillin, and the compounded pills if the pharmacists had the proper ingredients in powder or liquid form to make the drugs.

Surgeries were performed by doctors with little or no hospital training, just theoretical knowledge, and hospitals lacked a lot to be desired in terms of a septic environment.

People took their lives into their own hands when admitted to a hospital and, if they did not carry “walking around bribe money” for doctors, nurses, lab assistants, and radiologists, they were as good as dead unless God intervened, and they survived against all odds. Mom used to call those outliers, “God’s people with years left to live” despite adverse circumstances.

Lack of antibiotics or lack of access to a doctor or nurse killed many. Nobody lined up to buy drugs in pharmacies because the pharmacies were empty, the shelves were bare, they did not even carry simple vitamins. When the pharmacy received shipments, the drugs were sold quickly on the black market, to friends, or under the counter for a bribe.

 

Is Modern Technology Hazardous to Your Health?

Wikipedia photo

Technology has impacted our lives in many positive and negative ways, computers, mobile phones with 5G present and future robotic and automotive applications, smart meters, solar panels, wind turbines, and geoengineering, just to name a few. But are they good for our health?

As the 5G rollout is happening around the world, concerned groups are organizing to mount an opposition and voice their concern about its safety to humans and animals bathed constantly in EMF radiation from towers that will eventually be deployed on every street corner.

A recent article reported that four students and three teachers in a California school in San Joaquin County were stricken with cancer which was caused entirely by environmental factors. Parents were demanding that a “radiation-emitting cell phone tower be removed from elementary school property.” https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-03-16-california-parents-demand-radiation-emitting-cell-phone-tower-be-removed-from-elementary-school.html

As reported by DrJockers.com, documented 5G health effects include “worsened eye health, lowered bacterial resistance, impacted skin health, and more biologically-active organs – more dangerous.”

Dr. Klaus Kaiser wrote that “there is a one-plus order of magnitude difference in the photon (electromagnetic wave, EM) energy between the current 4G communication (4G) and the proposed 5G systems (5G).”

He continues that “The more powerful EM wave energy (30-80 GHz of the 5G vs. 3-6 GHz of the 4G) requires a novel set of long-term assessment testing on a variety of species that could be affected by it, even if it were eventually proven to be of no concern in any testing.” In the absence of such a testing, the hurried 5G rollout is a global experiment on humans as unwilling laboratory rats who want faster internet connectivity, smart appliances, future robotic applications not yet thought of, and self-driven cars, all controlled from towers on every block, like steel trees everywhere. https://principia-scientific.org/recommendations-for-5g-communication-systems-testing/

Dr. Kaiser recommends studying any health effects of 5G technology on the animal population of a zoo with its biological universe at the ready – animals live, breed, and die in a relatively secure and enclosed experimental area. His proposal for 5G testing is detailed here. https://principia-scientific.org/recommendations-for-5g-communication-systems-testing/

A recent study, “Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression,” was published in the Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. The abstract said, “Among the more commonly reported changes are sleep disturbance/insomnia, headache, depression/depressive symptoms, fatigue/tiredness, dysesthesia, concentration/attention dysfunction, memory changes, dizziness, irritability, loss of appetite/body weight, restlessness/anxiety, nausea, skin burning/tingling/dermographism and EEG changes. … All collectively show that various non-thermal microwave EMF exposures produce diverse neuropsychiatric effects.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26300312

Josh Del Sol pointed out that the 5G seen in Wi-Fi routers means “5 GHz.” But the 5G they are talking about is the “5^th Generation” infrastructure. “Actual 5G (5^th Generation) is planned to operate at 25-90+ GHz frequencies, use beam-forming/targeting systems, and be integrated with thousands of satellites to blanket the earth.”

In a video found here, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal asked wireless industry reps questions about the safety of 5G technology and whether the industry that is pushing this 5G technology knows of or has sponsored any research studies as to the health effects on humans and animals and the answers were that the industry has done no health and safety studies on 5G technology. Independent studies do show “a risk to all biological life.”https://takebackyourpower.net/senate-hearing-wireless-industry-confesses-no-studies-showing-5g-safety/

Stephen McBride stated in a recent mailout that “China and the U.S. are neck in neck in the race to develop their 5G networks. In fact, so far China has outspent the U.S. by $25 billion in 5G, according to ‘Big 4’ accounting firm Deloitte.”

He believes that, even though “the Trump White House recently labeled 5G a national security priority for America,” the government’s “red tape is choking America’s 5G rollout.” He continues that America needs hundreds of thousands of new cell towers. These are “tiny compared to the 100+ foot cell towers you’re used to seeing.” They are the size of a trash can and carry signal only about half a mile. This means that “instead of placing one giant cell tower every few miles, we’ll need to place small ones every couple thousand feet.”

According to McBride, there are 220,000 cell towers in the U.S. today. In his estimation, AT&T alone will need 300,000 new 5G cell towers, a big project. The new towers are not just an improvement over 4G but a “huge leap.”

In their rush to deployment, the industry spent zero money to study the effects of the 5G towers on health.

Another health issue for humans and animals documented by many independent studies points to smart meters. Smart meters have been installed in most places for the convenience of utility companies and to the detriment of the population at large, who are experiencing various health problems, are paying higher electricity rates per kWh, are spied upon 24/7 without a warrant, their consumption patterns and activities sold to third parties, and are hit with radiation every so many seconds coming from the Mother Ship far away, measuring and controlling customers’ consumption by off switches during high peak demand. Why would the utility store extra electricity for high demand times when they can cut your electricity off and “save” you money while you swelter in your home for hours each day and your food and medicine spoil in the fridge?

Geoengineering is allegedly protecting humanity from the effects of global warming. It engages in aerial spraying and injection of the stratosphere with harmful chemicals in order, as we were told by former CIA chief, John Brennan, to mitigate the disastrous effects of global warming. The particles sprayed in the atmosphere are eventually inhaled by all of us as they fall to the ground and mix in the soil that grows our crops and in our waters from which we drink. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=john+brennan+video+talking+about+geoengineering+to+tcfr&view=detail&mid=51C4B7337867D35FBAE651C4B7337867D35FBAE6&FORM=VIRE

Despite complaints from farmers, environmentalists, and sick humans who experience heightened allergies and other medical problems, the geoengineering continues. The trails in the sky do not dissipate for hours and eventually turn into a milky grey cover that blocks the sun for hours or days. Water vapor trails from airplanes usually dissipate in minutes.

Solar panels installed in large fields are a health hazard to fauna, especially birds. Solar panels on homes reduce electrical consumption and eventually, after a high initial installation cost, begin to pay off in lower usage of electricity generated by fossil fuels. But, in the absence of sun, electricity produced by fossil fuels is necessary.

Fields of solar panels that produce more electricity require huge land area deployment that takes fertile soil away from agriculture and the production of food. Solar panels create heat fluxes, frying in flight any bird that is unlucky enough to fly in its proximity or is attracted to the solar panels that look curiously like shimmering rivers and lakes to them.

Wind farm victims of wind turbines - dead minks

Wikipedia photo

Wind turbines seemed like a good idea until the huge blades started chopping up millions of birds around the word. The constant thump-thump sounds interrupted the sleep pattern of humans and animals alike. Animals started exhibiting strange behaviors, attacking their young, and birthing dead litters. Humans living in the proximity of wind turbines complained of many strange health issues, such as insomnia, skin problems, hormonal issues, birth defects, and psychological problems.

A wind turbine on fire - Wikipedia photo

The production of electricity is sketchy at best since turbines produce electricity when winds exceed speeds of 32 MPH. Just because a blade is spinning, it does not necessarily mean that it produces electricity. According to the experts, the quantity of fossil fuels and other materials used to manufacture and maintain a wind turbine makes it almost impossible to break even in the life span of an electricity producing wind turbine. Some wind turbines in smaller European countries were installed in a hurry because the funds were available from the EU, but the turbines themselves were not connected to any electricity storage facility.

As I ponder the impact of technology on health, I cannot forget how at one time tobacco smoking was touted as a health benefit by those who profited from it.

Bon Appetit

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Americans' weight has been inching up each year and blood pressure increased thanks in part to a sedentary lifestyle and to the amount of sugar and salt in food. Manufacturers also hide ingredients they should list on the packaging under the label of "natural flavoring." The deception is massive.

How do you hide sugar? By giving it different names such as "high fructose corn syrup, cane crystals, dextrose, evaporated can juice, agave nectar, and fruit juice concentrate." In doing so, the amount of sugar does not appear as the number one ingredient on the list. Walter Willett, M.D., said that the Food and Drug Administration might require food labeling to show all types of sugar contained and print them on the package as "added sugars."

Items listed such as "carmine" or cochineal extract" are actually bug powder. FDA considers it safe, unless you are part of the small group of people who are allergic. Instead of bug powder, manufacturers could use petroleum-based chemicals such as Red No. 40 or No. 3 which have been proven by some studies to cause hyperactivity in children and cancer in animals. Most people would probably choose bug powder if they had a choice.

Among unlabeled ingredients are pesticides which are generally present in most foods. Packaging, such as particles of cardboard and chemicals that leech from the cardboard are also present; BPA, an industrial chemical linked to cancer, also leeches in the liquid food stored in such containers, including water stored in heated environments above certain degrees Fahrenheit.

I often wondered if the bottled water stored in the desert heat in the Middle East war zone contributed to the rise in military men and women cancer rates by 50 percent. Someone should definitely do an extensive study of their records and their whereabouts. Every time my spouse took chemo treatments, I asked everyone present what type of cancer they were given chemo for. The common denominator was a thoracic area type of cancer, most people were very young, and the trace marker test revealed that the cancer was environmental. One had a bizarre and very rare appendix cancer.

If you think you are eating high fiber foods, you will be surprised to learn that they contain "fake" fiber, not naturally occurring fiber from whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Such "fake" fibers may be listed as "chicory root, maltodextrin, and polydextrose."

I've heard from a friend of mine who was a big eater of peanut butter how disgusted he was when he found out what's in his beloved peanut butter. He stopped buying it commercially and started making his own from peanuts he cleaned and pressed himself. Insect parts are present during manufacturing process and "peanut butter can have up to 30 insect parts per 100 grams."

Nanoparticles are not required to be listed on packaging but manufacturers use them to increase shelf life of food. They are so small that they pass through cell walls. Nobody really knows how nanoparticles affect our bodies.

Chicken which is now shipped to China to rendered and packaged and shipped back to the U.S. is not as safe as people think. A 2012 study found what kind of drugs the chicken ingested before they were slaughtered: antibiotics residue banned in poultry, caffeine, acetaminophen (Tylenol), diphenhydramine (Benadryl), fluoxetine (active ingredient in Prozac).

Ninety percent of seafood is coming from other countries and we have no idea what the contaminants are. Videos from China have shown packaging houses injecting fish and shrimp with silicone to make them look plumper and fresher. The FDA inspects "less than 2 percent of our seafood imports." The EU, by contrast, inspects 20-50 percent of imports.

Robert J. Davis recommends farmed salmon from a good farm because it has "more heart-healthy omega-3s than wild salmon."

Packaged sliced cheese are mostly not cheese, they are made of milk protein concentrate and whey protein concentrate. They are thus called "pasteurized prepared cheese products." If ice cream does not have at least 10 percent milk fat, it must be called "frozen dairy dessert." Greek yogurt that is labeled "whey protein concentrate" or "milk protein concentrate" on the ingredients list is not strained naturally to make it thick, things have been added to thicken it.

In processed foods, salt is the "miracle ingredient" because it preserves the food, helps exacerbate the sweet taste, and hides bad flavors coming from the manufacturing line. Flour, sugar, and oils are mixed in large vats. Salt, flavoring, coloring, and other "fairy dust" is added to make the product look and taste close to something we would mix at home. They add sun dried tomatoes, vitamins, anti-oxidants, and extra fiber in order to claim that the finite product is good for you.

Do manufacturers go overboard with their ingredients? The FDA lets them be their own safety testers and there are no mandatory guidelines. Melanie Warner said, they don't even have to tell the FDA what "new additives they are using."

Additionally, FDA inspectors have a vested interest in companies that sell synthetic products to food manufacturers. Manufacturers self-police and FDA steps in only if customers complain.

If you like sourdough bread, you will be surprised to find out that the bacteria came from rodent feces, said Rob Dunn, biologist at NC State University.

Strange claims from Presbyterian minister Sylvester Graham, who invented graham crackers to reduce libido, blamed meat, white bread, and alcohol on "excessive sexual desire." Very bland at first, it was turned into the sweet treat after this death. (Libby O'Connell)

Even though we complain about the price of food we buy in grocery stores, Americans spend the lowest amount of their income on food, about 5.6 percent of their disposable income.

Katherine Talmadge recommends Triscuits because they only list three ingredients, whole-grain wheat, oil, and salt. Finn Crisp and Wasa brands are also recommended for having 100 percent whole grain and low amounts of salt. Cereal's nutrition is destroyed during processing so manufacturers must add vitamins and minerals to it.

If you are leery of pasta, like I am, get regular pasta and not whole wheat. Kantha Shelke believes that whole wheat pasta has more starch than regular pasta because of the grounding process. Better yet, search for a pasta with a low glycemic index, especially if you are borderline diabetic.

Organic food is not necessarily better and healthier in light of e-coli contamination from animal fecal fertilizer; it is certainly very expensive for most people. Fresh fruits and vegetables in season are the best and, if you are not sure what you eat from the store or from a restaurant, cook more at home.