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If you wake up tired despite eight hours in bed, if your workouts leave you depleted instead of energized, if you feel like you’re running on fumes no matter how well you eat — your stress response is likely stuck in overdrive. This pattern has a name in traditional medicine. For centuries, Ayurvedic practitioners recognized it as a state of depletion requiring restoration, not more effort.

The remedy they reached for was ashwagandha, a root classified as an adaptogen, meaning it helps your body adapt to stress by restoring balance rather than forcing a response in one direction. Unlike stimulants that push energy or sedatives that suppress it, adaptogens support equilibrium. That ancient intuition now has modern validation.

Stress is woven into daily life in ways that are easy to normalize and hard to escape. Long work hours, irregular sleep, and relentless mental load quietly shift your body into chronic strain. Over time, that strain shows up as poor sleep, unstable energy, slower recovery, and a feeling that your body doesn’t fully reset — symptoms often ignored until performance, health, or motivation starts to slide.

Athletic training magnifies this problem rather than offsetting it. Physical effort demands recovery, and when stress stays elevated, recovery remains incomplete. Picture someone who trains four days a week, eats clean, and still can’t shake the brain fog or build the muscle they expect. They assume they need to train harder or find a new diet.

But when stress hormones run constantly high, the body treats every workout as another threat to survive rather than a stimulus to adapt to. No amount of effort overcomes that biochemical roadblock.

At the center of this connection sits the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis, your body’s stress thermostat. When it’s working properly, it ramps up cortisol to meet a challenge, then dials back down once the threat passes. Chronic stress miscalibrates this thermostat, leaving it stuck in the “on” position, pumping cortisol even when there’s no real threat.

Ashwagandha helps recalibrate this system so your body recognizes when it’s actually safe to rest and repair. Its active compounds, called withanolides, modulate stress signaling, support calming neurotransmitter activity, and provide antioxidant protection. Understanding these connections sets the stage for examining why ashwagandha has become a focus of serious scientific interest and what the research shows when stress regulation moves back in the right direction.

Ashwagandha Improves Stress, Hormones, and Recovery in Active Adults

A paper published in the Journal of Education, Health and Sport analyzed human clinical trials that examined ashwagandha supplementation in relation to cortisol control, testosterone balance, and physical recovery outcomes.1

The researchers focused on randomized, placebo-controlled studies conducted in adults between 2010 and 2025, prioritizing trials that measured objective markers such as blood hormones, aerobic capacity, and recovery indices. The goal was to determine whether ashwagandha meaningfully improves how the body handles stress and rebounds from physical demand.

• Ashwagandha benefits adults under psychological or physical strain — The review highlighted consistent benefits in chronically stressed adults, physically active individuals, and athletes exposed to demanding training loads. These groups showed measurable reductions in stress markers alongside improvements in perceived stress, anxiety scores, and physical readiness.

This matters because stress-related fatigue and stalled recovery often share the same root: excessive cortisol signaling.

• Cortisol dropped at a rate that clearly separated ashwagandha from placebo — One standout trial gave stressed adults 300 milligrams (mg) of ashwagandha root extract twice daily for 60 days. Their cortisol dropped 27.9% — nearly four times the reduction seen in the placebo group. That gap represents a meaningful shift from chronic stress physiology toward recovery physiology.

For someone running on stress hormones, a 28% drop in cortisol could mean finally sleeping through the night, waking up without an alarm, or noticing that afternoon slump disappears. Cortisol drives muscle breakdown, sleep disruption, and hormonal suppression when it stays elevated. So, lower cortisol shifts your body out of constant defense mode and back into repair.

• Multiple stress-related outcomes improved at the same time — Beyond cortisol, participants reported lower perceived stress scores and improved emotional stability across several trials. Anxiety ratings dropped, sleep quality improved, and subjective fatigue declined.

These outcomes cascade: lower stress hormones enable deeper sleep, deeper sleep accelerates recovery, faster recovery unlocks training gains. One improvement sets the next in motion. Rather than forcing performance, the herb supported the HPA axis, helping the body respond appropriately instead of overreacting.

• Hormonal balance shifted in a favorable direction — The review reported repeated findings of increased testosterone and DHEA-S levels, especially in physically active men and older adults with lower baseline hormone levels. Testosterone supports muscle repair, strength development, and motivation.

DHEA-S is a precursor hormone, a building block your body uses to make testosterone and estrogen. When chronic stress depletes it, your hormonal reserves run low. Restoring DHEA-S helps replenish that reserve tank. Importantly, these increases appeared alongside cortisol reductions, not through overstimulation.

Cortisol and testosterone have an inverse relationship — when one rises, the other tends to fall. This is why chronically stressed men often experience low testosterone symptoms (fatigue, reduced motivation, slow recovery) even when their levels test “normal.” By reducing cortisol, ashwagandha creates hormonal room for testosterone to rise naturally.

• Physical performance and recovery showed objective gains — Trials summarized in the review demonstrated improvements in VO2 max, a measure of how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exertion. A higher VO2 max means you can climb stairs, finish a workout, or keep up with your children without gasping for air. It’s the difference between feeling winded and feeling capable.

Participants also showed improved recovery and lower post-exercise fatigue scores, meaning they bounced back faster between training sessions.

Chronically elevated cortisol breaks down muscle tissue for fuel, impairs glycogen replenishment, and delays tissue repair. When cortisol normalizes, your body can finally use the protein you eat for building rather than burning, store carbohydrates efficiently in muscle, and repair micro-damage from training. The performance gains aren’t from stimulation — they’re from removing the brake that was preventing adaptation.

Most positive outcomes emerged after eight weeks or longer of daily supplementation. Short-term dosing produced smaller effects, while sustained use aligned with larger cortisol reductions and performance gains.

Why Ashwagandha’s Benefits Show Up Across Sleep, Metabolism, and Performance

These findings raised an obvious question: why does lowering cortisol produce such wide-ranging benefits? A review in Nutrition & Metabolism attempted to untangle the mechanisms.2 Rather than asking whether outcomes occur, this study focused on why they occur.

The review covered healthy adults, people under chronic psychological stress, recreational and trained athletes, and older adults experiencing fatigue or metabolic decline. Across these groups, improvements clustered around sleep quality, metabolic markers, and physical and mental performance.

• Sleep quality emerged as a primary driver of downstream benefits — Multiple randomized trials showed improvements in sleep onset time, total sleep duration, and sleep efficiency, especially at doses of 600 mg per day or higher over eight weeks or more. Sleep efficiency simply means how much time in bed you actually spend asleep.

Better sleep improves recovery, hormone balance, and next-day energy, which explains why performance metrics improve. The review detailed ashwagandha’s interaction with GABA receptors in the brain, which helps quiet overactive neural signaling tied to poor sleep and anxiety. GABA acts like the brain’s “off switch” for racing thoughts. When ashwagandha enhances GABA activity, it’s easier for your mind to quiet down at night instead of replaying the day’s stressors on a loop.

• Stress markers improved alongside sleep — The review reported consistent reductions in morning cortisol paired with better subjective stress scores and quality-of-life ratings. Morning cortisol reflects how hard your stress system runs at baseline. Lower values signal a calmer starting point each day, which supports steadier energy and emotional control.

• Metabolic health showed measurable improvement in several trials — Ashwagandha supplementation was linked to reductions in fasting blood glucose, insulin, and LDL cholesterol in adults. Lower insulin and glucose mean your cells handle fuel more efficiently. That efficiency supports endurance, reduces energy crashes, and speeds recovery between workouts.

• Body composition shifted in a favorable direction when paired with training — Trials summarized in the review showed greater muscle gains and fat reduction in participants who combined resistance training with ashwagandha supplementation compared to training alone. These changes tracked with improved sleep and lower stress hormones, not appetite suppression.

• Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory pathways played a role — Human trials showed reductions in markers of oxidative stress along with increases in antioxidant defenses. Oxidative stress is like rust accumulating inside your cells. Intense exercise, poor sleep, and chronic stress all accelerate this “rusting.” Ashwagandha helps your body produce more of its natural rust-proofing compounds. Lowering oxidative stress protects muscles, nerves, and mitochondria during repeated training.

This creates a virtuous cycle: lower cortisol enables deeper sleep. Deeper sleep enhances growth hormone release and tissue repair. Better recovery allows more productive training. More productive training builds fitness and resilience. Ashwagandha doesn’t create this cycle — it removes the cortisol block that was preventing it from turning.

Most benefits emerged after four to 12 weeks, with stronger outcomes at eight weeks or longer. Shorter trials showed smaller shifts. Across dozens of trials using 300 to 600 mg daily for up to 12 weeks, researchers reported no meaningful changes in blood counts, thyroid markers, or vital signs. Mild side effects occurred at similar rates in placebo groups. Rare liver injury cases resolved after stopping supplementation, reinforcing the importance of appropriate dosing and quality control.

How to Lower Stress Load and Recover Faster on Purpose

When your body feels stuck in survival mode, pushing harder rarely fixes the problem. High stress keeps cortisol elevated, which interferes with sleep, recovery, and training progress. The goal here is to calm the stress-response system first, then build habits that help your body repair and regain momentum instead of spinning its wheels.

1. Lower daily stress signals — If you wake up tired, feel on edge during the day, or notice that workouts leave you wiped out instead of energized, your nervous system is under constant pressure. Start with simple changes. Anchor your sleep with consistency: same bedtime, same wake time, even on weekends.
Dim lights after sunset, since bright screens tell your brain it’s still daytime. Treat the last hour before bed as a decompression zone, not a time to catch up on email. These habits reduce baseline cortisol and make ashwagandha far more effective instead of asking it to fight constant stress noise on its own.

2. Use ashwagandha to calm your system, not to push harder — When stress hormones stay high, adding stimulants or training intensity makes things worse. Ashwagandha works best as a steady, daily support that helps quiet stress signaling. If you’re mentally overloaded, training often, or sleeping lightly, consistency matters more than timing tricks. The real benefit comes when your body finally gets the message that it doesn’t need to stay on high alert.

3. Match your workouts to what your body can actually recover from — Too much intense exercise causes more harm than good. Long, exhausting sessions drive cortisol even higher and slow recovery. Moderate-intensity workouts, like walking, combined with shorter, focused workouts and real rest days protects recovery hormones. When stress drops, ashwagandha supports adaptation instead of acting as damage control.

4. Keep your blood sugar steady to avoid hidden stress spikes — Energy crashes act like stress to your body. If you feel shaky, irritable, or drained between meals, cortisol rises to fill the gap. Regular meals with enough carbohydrates and protein help keep energy steady throughout the day.

When blood sugar crashes, your body releases cortisol to compensate — it’s an emergency fuel system. Preventing those crashes with regular, balanced meals keeps cortisol from spiking unnecessarily. Start by aiming for 250 grams of carbs per day, which supports sustained metabolic health and ensures that your mitochondria function efficiently.

Prioritize easy-to-digest options like fruit and white rice. When your gut is ready, meaning no bloating and no irregular bowel movements, gradually add in root vegetables, then legumes, additional vegetables, and well-tolerated whole grains.

5. Give your body enough time to reset — Stress doesn’t unwind overnight. If you’re coming out of burnout, heavy training, or long-term pressure, your nervous system needs repeated signals that things are safe again. Staying consistent with sleep, nutrition, recovery-focused training, and daily ashwagandha use for at least eight weeks allows cortisol to settle, sleep to deepen, and energy to return.

Performance improves as a result, not by forcing it. If you are an athlete, a busy professional, or someone who simply feels run down, this approach helps your body stop fighting itself and start rebuilding again.

6. Choose a quality ashwagandha extract and use it consistently — Not all ashwagandha products are equal. Look for root extract (not leaf) standardized to contain a consistent percentage of withanolides, the active compounds responsible for stress-lowering effects. Capsules offer convenience; powders can be mixed into smoothies or warm milk (a traditional Ayurvedic preparation).

Aim for 300 to 600 mg daily, taken morning or evening — some prefer evening due to the calming effects. Plan for at least eight weeks of consistent use before evaluating results. The benefits build gradually as your stress signaling recalibrates.

Signs ashwagandha is working often appear gradually: falling asleep faster, waking feeling more refreshed, steadier energy without caffeine dependence, better workout recovery, and a general sense of feeling less “wired but tired.” Consider keeping a simple journal of sleep quality and energy levels for the first eight weeks.

Those with autoimmune thyroid conditions should consult their doctor, as ashwagandha stimulates thyroid function. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid it due to insufficient safety data. If you take sedatives, thyroid medications, or immunosuppressants, check with your health care provider first.

FAQs About Ashwagandha

Q: What does ashwagandha actually help with?
A: Ashwagandha helps lower chronic stress by reducing cortisol, which supports better sleep, steadier energy, hormonal balance, and faster physical recovery. When stress signaling calms down, your body shifts out of breakdown mode and back into repair.

Q: Who benefits the most from using ashwagandha?
A: The higher your baseline stress, the more room there is for improvement. Someone already sleeping well with low anxiety may notice little change. Someone running on fumes, sleeping poorly, and feeling constantly on edge often notices significant shifts within weeks. This includes athletes, highly active adults, busy professionals, and anyone dealing with poor sleep, fatigue, or slow recovery.

Q: How long does it take to notice results?
A: Most clinical benefits show up after consistent daily use for at least eight weeks. Shorter use produces smaller effects, while longer, steady use aligns with deeper cortisol reduction, improved sleep quality, and better recovery.

Q: Does ashwagandha work on its own, or does lifestyle still matter?
A: Ashwagandha works best when stressors are reduced at the same time. Consistent sleep schedules, appropriate exercise intensity, and stable blood sugar allow the herb to reinforce calm stress signaling instead of fighting constant overload.

Q: Is ashwagandha safe when used correctly?
A: Clinical trials using standard doses for up to 12 weeks report no meaningful changes in blood markers or vital signs, with mild side effects occurring at rates similar to placebo. Using appropriate doses and high-quality preparations supports safe, predictable results.

You’ve done everything right. You’ve chosen organic produce, filtered your water, avoided alcohol during pregnancy. You’re breastfeeding your baby, knowing it’s the gold standard for infant nutrition. But new research reveals an uncomfortable truth: your breast milk also carries a chemical signature of modern life — traces of plastics from takeout containers, disinfectants from household cleaners, pesticides from conventional produce, even breakdown products of medications taken years ago.1

Early development depends on tightly regulated hormonal and metabolic signaling. When hormone-disrupting chemicals appear during this stage, researchers pay close attention, even when levels are low. These chemicals mimic natural hormones like estrogen or block hormone receptors, interfering with growth signals, metabolism, and brain development during a period when these systems are still forming.

What stands out in this research is not the presence of one dominant toxin, but the repeated detection of many different chemicals that originate from routine activities such as food storage, household cleaning, and personal care product use.

At the same time, breast milk remains the gold standard for infant nutrition, delivering immune protection and biological signals that no substitute matches. The concern is not whether breastfeeding is safe, but how modern environments influence what passes through breast milk — and its effects on future generations.

Breast Milk Carries a Mixture of Modern Industrial Chemicals

Researchers from McGill University used a non-targeted screening approach — essentially casting a wide net to identify any chemical signature present, rather than testing for a predetermined list of suspects.2 Think of it as the difference between searching for specific known criminals versus photographing everyone who passes through airport security to see who shows up.

Most safety testing evaluates chemicals in isolation — as if you encounter BPA alone, without simultaneous exposure to phthalates, parabens, and pesticides. But daily life doesn’t work that way. You’re exposed to dozens of chemicals simultaneously through food, air, water, and products. Regulatory science hasn’t caught up to this reality. The researchers analyzed 594 human milk samples collected in Montreal, Canada, and in Vhembe and Pretoria, South Africa, between 2018 and 2019, with eye-opening results.

• The study revealed chemicals that had never been reported in human milk before — Among the newly identified substances were antimicrobial preservatives, which appear in soaps, disinfectants, and personal care products. Plastic-related antioxidant additives also showed up, reflecting exposure from food packaging and manufactured materials. For parents, this confirms that everyday products leave biological traces in breast milk, even without obvious overuse.

• Agricultural and household chemicals appeared alongside personal-care residues — The researchers also detected propanil, an agricultural herbicide, and chloroxylenol, an antimicrobial common in household disinfectants. None of these compounds had been previously documented in human milk.

• Medication byproducts offered a real-world snapshot of treatment history — In samples from South Africa, scientists identified a breakdown product of efavirenz, a medication once widely used to treat HIV. When chemicals enter your body, they don’t necessarily stay in their original form. Your liver and other organs chemically modify them into metabolites — breakdown products that can be more or less toxic than the parent compound.

This is why researchers now track both the original chemicals and their transformed versions. According to study co-author Stéphane Bayen, the presence of the HIV drug breakdown product indicated maternal use during or before the sample years, before treatment guidelines changed after 2019. This shows how past medical decisions remain visible in biological samples years later.

Bayen described the results as evidence that people experience a “complex cocktail of chemical residues,” shaped by diet, environment, and lifestyle. This matters because chemicals rarely act alone. Two chemicals that seem safe individually might amplify each other’s effects when combined — or create entirely new effects. Regulatory testing evaluates one chemical at a time, but your baby receives them all at once.

• Some chemical levels correlated with measurable infant outcomes — Concentrations of certain chemicals, including bisphenol A and bisphenol AF, aligned with altered growth patterns among South African infants. Jonathan Chevrier, an associate professor of epidemiology involved in the work, stressed that this was the first study of its kind and that replication remains necessary before drawing firm conclusions. Still, this link explains why scientists track growth signals so closely during infancy.

• Breast milk remains the gold standard for infant nutrition — Bayen stated that the detected substances appeared at low concentrations and that the health effects of many remain unknown. Establishing baseline data allows regulators and scientists to expand testing targets beyond the usual suspects.

That creates a practical pathway for reducing exposure over time instead of guessing where risks originate. Once you understand the exposure pathways — how these chemicals travel from products to your bloodstream to your milk — the leverage points for intervention become obvious. You can’t control industrial contamination of the entire food supply, but you can control whether you microwave leftovers in plastic or store them in glass.

5 Separate Studies Point to the Same Exposure Problem

The McGill research didn’t rely on one analysis. It drew from five separate studies, each asking a different question about what ends up in breast milk, how those chemicals get there, and whether they relate to infant growth or development. Together, these studies show not only what turns up in human milk, but also how replacement chemicals, household habits, and regional differences shape what infants receive during a critical stage of growth.

• Bisphenols in breast milk linked to measurable changes in infant growth — A study published in Environmental Research examined bisphenols — plastic-related chemicals that disrupt hormones — in breast milk from South Africa and Canada.3 Levels of BPA, BPS, and BPAF were highest in rural South Africa and lowest in Montreal, where only BPS was detected.

Microwaving food in plastic containers and maternal diet strongly influenced exposure. Among South African infants, BPAF aligned with greater body length and head circumference, while higher BPA aligned with smaller head size.

This contradictory pattern reveals a problem with chemical substitution: manufacturers replace BPA with structurally similar cousins (BPS, BPAF), assuming safety, but these “replacements” interact with the body’s hormone receptors in entirely different ways. Same chemical family, opposite biological effects.

• Testing revealed chlorinated chemicals not previously found in human milk — Research published in Exposome used a broad scanning method rather than a preset chemical list.4 This approach identified six chlorinated compounds, including disinfectant antimicrobials, pesticide-related chemicals, a UV filter, and a breakdown product of an HIV medication.

Several of these substances had never been reported in human milk before. The findings show that standard testing overlooks meaningful exposures from cleaning products, agriculture, and medical treatments combined.

• Plastic substitutes appeared alongside the chemicals they replaced — A Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology study looked beyond BPA and searched for structurally similar replacements.5

Researchers identified 11 additional compounds, including chemicals used in thermal receipt paper, ultraviolet filters, and synthetic antioxidants. Two plastic stabilizers were detected in human milk for the first time. This demonstrates that removing one known chemical often results in exposure to newer alternatives rather than true reduction.

• Parabens showed up in multiple processed forms, not just their original state — A Chemosphere study focused on parabens, preservatives common in cosmetics and personal care products.6 Scientists identified common parabens, newly recognized parabens, and sulfated forms that show how the body chemically modifies these compounds.

Some parabens appeared only in South African samples. The same analysis detected phthalates, PFAS, and even a tire-related chemical, illustrating how environmental contamination reaches breast milk through indirect and unexpected routes.

• Country-specific patterns revealed chemical substitution rather than elimination — An Environmental Pollution study measured nine bisphenols using a sensitive extraction method.7 South African samples showed higher BPA levels, mostly in processed form, while Canadian samples showed a shift away from BPA toward BPS. BPAF appeared only in South Africa. These findings show that regulatory changes often swap one chemical for another, leaving overall exposure intact rather than reduced.

Practical Steps to Reduce Chemical Exposure While Protecting Your Baby

These findings might feel overwhelming — and the instinct might be to panic or dismiss breastfeeding altogether. But breast milk remains the best source of infant nutrition — irreplaceable, in fact — even in a world saturated with environmental chemicals. The goal here is not to create fear around breastfeeding.

The goal is to reduce the everyday exposures that contribute to chemical residues in human milk. When daily habits change, what transfers to your baby changes as well. That gives you meaningful control at a time when control often feels limited.

1. Keep breastfeeding as the nutritional foundation — If you’re breastfeeding, staying the course supports your baby’s immune defenses, gut development, and brain growth, while supplying antibodies, enzymes, and hormones that help guide healthy metabolism.

The researchers behind the breast milk findings stated clearly that breast milk remains ideal for infants because it delivers nutrition and immune protection no substitute can match. Lowering environmental exposure strengthens these benefits by reducing what transfers alongside those protective compounds rather than replacing breastfeeding itself.

2. Filter your drinking water — Drinking water and cooking water contribute to ongoing chemical intake, including residues from pesticides, plastics, and disinfectants. Install a high-quality water filtration system to intercept contaminants before they enter every glass of water you drink, every meal you cook, and every bottle you prepare. This single step lowers cumulative intake without changing routines.

3. Simplify personal care and household products — Many of the unexpected compounds identified in breast milk trace back to soaps, disinfectants, and cosmetic products. Reducing the number of products you use each day lowers the number of preservatives and antimicrobial agents absorbed through your skin.

Fewer products create fewer exposure pathways. Choosing natural personal care products and cleaning agents, or making your own at home, also reduces your exposure to toxic chemicals. Specific swaps that matter:

• Replace antibacterial hand soap with natural soap
• Skip body lotions with long ingredient lists; use organic coconut oil instead
• Eliminate triclosan-containing toothpaste (check labels)
• Make a simple deodorant from baking soda and coconut oil

4. Limit plastic contact with food and beverages — Plastic-related additives detected in breast milk originate largely from food packaging and storage materials. Switch to glass, stainless steel, or ceramic containers to eliminate contact with plastic stabilizers and antioxidants — especially when heating food, since heat dramatically accelerates chemical migration into whatever you’re eating or drinking. Prioritize these changes in order of impact:

• Don’t microwave in plastic (this showed the strongest correlation with BPA levels in the research)
• Switch hot food/beverage containers first (coffee cup lids, takeout containers for hot food, plastic wrap touching hot dishes)
• Replace plastic food storage gradually with glass (mason jars work for most needs; focus on acidic foods like tomato sauce first, as acids leach more chemicals)
• Avoid canned foods with BPA linings
• Don’t reuse disposable plastic bottles (reuse increases leaching)

5. Use my homemade formula recipe if breastfeeding is not possible — Some parents can’t breastfeed, and that reality deserves a practical solution. In those cases, my homemade formula recipe avoids industrial seed oils and unnecessary additives common in commercial formulas. This option allows greater control over ingredients and reduces exposure to avoidable contaminants.

Below is my preferred dairy-based formula, which will make 36 ounces of milk. If you need to make large batches to last several days, you can do so, but make sure to freeze the finished product. For children who are unable to tolerate milk proteins, I recommend trying my hypoallergenic milk formula instead.

Healthy Homemade Infant Formula

Procedure

1. Warm 1 7/8 cups of filtered water (to get this amount, measure out 2 cups of water and remove 2 tablespoons) over medium heat.
2. Add 2 teaspoons of grass fed beef gelatin and 4 tablespoons of lactose to the water; occasionally stir until dissolved.
3. Place 2 cups of raw organic whole cow’s milk into a clean glass blender. Add the remainder of ingredients to the blender:

• 1/4 cup of liquid homemade whey (for instructions, see Pope’s video. You can also visit the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website for their own homemade whey recipe)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of raw cream
• 1/4 teaspoon acerola powder
• 1/4 teaspoon bifidobacterium infantis (a probiotic)
• 2 teaspoons Frontier Brand nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon high-quality non-fermented cod liver oil. You could substitute the cod liver oil with wild-caught Alaskan Salmon oil or krill oil
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon organic ghee

4. Remove the pot of water from the stove. Add 2 teaspoons of coconut oil and 1/4 teaspoon high-vitamin butter oil to the water to melt. Once melted, add the water mixture to the blender ingredients and blend for about three to five seconds.

5. Pour the blended ingredients into glass jars or glass baby bottles and refrigerate. Before feeding, warm the formula by placing the glass bottle in a pot of hot water. A baby bottle warmer can also be used. Never microwave infant formula, as this will destroy many valuable nutrients and enzymes and pose a burn risk.

FAQS About Chemicals in Breast Milk

Q: Why are chemicals showing up in breast milk at all?
A: Breast milk reflects a mother’s daily environment. Chemicals from plastics, pesticides, disinfectants, and personal care products enter your body through food, water, air, and skin contact, then transfer into milk in small amounts.

Q: Does the presence of these chemicals mean breast milk is unsafe?
A: No. The researchers emphasized that breast milk remains the gold standard for infant nutrition because it delivers immune protection, hormones, enzymes, and growth signals no substitute can replicate.

Q: Which everyday habits most strongly influence exposure?
A: Studies linked higher chemical levels to common behaviors such as microwaving food in plastic containers, frequent use of personal care products, contact with food packaging, and environmental contamination tied to diet and household products.

Q: Are all plastic-related chemicals the same in how they affect infants?
A: No. Different bisphenols behaved differently. Some aligned with larger infant growth measures, while others aligned with smaller head size, showing that chemical substitutes do not act the same in the body.

Q: What matters most for parents who want to reduce exposure?
A: The biggest leverage points are reducing plastic contact with food, improving water quality, simplifying personal care and cleaning products, and maintaining breastfeeding whenever possible to preserve its well-documented health benefits.

Every year, more than 5 million Americans are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) to get life-saving treatment. Thanks to modern technology, survival rates have never been higher — however, recovery is often brutal. Up to 80% of ventilated patients experience delirium,1 and nearly half develop severe muscle weakness that can linger for months. These complications stretch hospital stays and drive costs, with ICU care expenditures averaging over $4,000 per day.2

Heavy reliance on sedatives and opioids adds another layer of risk. Ironically, the very drugs meant to ease suffering can slow recovery, extend time on mechanical ventilation, and leave patients mentally foggy for weeks after discharge.3 In response to these concerns, researchers are exploring gentler, complementary approaches to support healing — including acupuncture, a therapy rooted in ancient tradition.

Video Link

A Legacy of Helping People Feel Less Pain

Acupuncture has been practiced for over 2,500 years in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and is based on the concept of ‘Qi’ (pronounced ‘chee’) — energy that flows through the body via pathways called meridians. The procedure involves inserting hair-thin, sterile needles into specific points on the body.4

These needles activate nerve pathways that run to the brain and spinal cord, triggering the release of your body’s natural painkillers. Acupuncture also signals the hypothalamus and pituitary gland, the master control centers for hormones and immune function.5

Understanding how acupuncture works is important if you’re curious about its role in critical care. You’re about to learn why this ancient therapy is gaining attention as a supportive option for ICU patients.

Acupuncture Could Hold the Key to a Speedy Recovery

A mini-review published in Frontiers in Neurology6 examined whether acupuncture can help ill patients recover more quickly in ICUs. The authors reviewed randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, and mechanistic studies to evaluate their strengths and limitations.7 They focused on ICU patients who often struggle with persistent pain, delirium, muscle weakness, and digestive problems after prolonged stays.8

• Acupuncture reduces dependence on drugs — Acupuncture, especially electroacupuncture (EA) and transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS), is increasingly used in ICU recovery care. According to their findings, these approaches may reduce the need for sedatives and pain medications, help patients come off ventilators sooner, and shorten ICU stays.

• Muscle weakness improves with acupuncture — ICU-acquired weakness (ICU-AW), which involves significant muscle loss after extended hospital stays, impacts up to 50% of patients. Trials indicate that combining acupuncture with rehabilitation enhances muscle strength scores and reduces ventilation duration by approximately two days. Some studies also reported increased muscle thickness, suggesting improved recovery prospects.9

• Delirium-free days were reported — Recent studies suggest acupuncture may help prevent and treat delirium in ICU patients by balancing brain chemicals, calming inflammation, and supporting normal circadian rhythms. Early findings show more delirium-free days and lower delirium rates, though larger studies are still needed.

• Gut health benefits add another layer — Acupuncture helps normalize gut function by easing constipation and reducing diarrhea. Studies show it can increase bowel movements, relieve opioid-related constipation, and lower diarrhea rates in patients receiving tube feeding.

• What do the researchers say? — The authors stressed that acupuncture should be viewed as an add-on, not a replacement for standard treatments. They also added that:

“Current evidence shows that it can safely and effectively reduce dependence on analgesic and sedative drugs, facilitate ventilator weaning, mitigate ICU-AW, decrease the incidence of delirium, and improve gastrointestinal function.

These benefits position acupuncture as a reproducible, low-risk, and potentially individualized adjunct, particularly valuable when conventional therapies are limited by adverse effects.

Future research should prioritize large multicenter [Randomized Controlled Trials] or RCTs, establish standardized operating procedures and dose — response frameworks, and incorporate real-world data with long-term outcome measures.”

To build on these findings, another team of researchers reviewed additional studies to determine how often acupuncture helps ICU patients manage multiple symptoms and even prevent infections.

Acupuncture as a Complement to Shock and Sepsis Care

To determine whether acupuncture’s benefits extend beyond limited studies, a team of researchers analyzed 12 clinical trials involving 682 critically ill patients.10 The systematic review, published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine in 2023, focused broadly on ICU care, but also touched on conditions like shock and sepsis, where acupuncture might offer supportive benefits. Here’s what the evidence suggests:

• Animal studies show heart benefits — In one experiment, stimulating a nerve similar to acupuncture reduced heart strain and improved blood flow. This effect may result from calming the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls involuntary functions such as heart rate and blood pressure.

• Case reports hint at better blood flow — Stimulating acupoints on the legs and feet may help improve circulation in patients with shock (a life-threatening drop in blood flow). These findings are preliminary and require further research.

• Acupuncture may fight inflammation in sepsis — Sepsis is a severe infection that triggers widespread inflammation and organ stress. Studies suggest that acupuncture can lower inflammation, reduce cell damage caused by unstable molecules, and improve blood flow through tiny vessels that keep organs alive.

• Boosts immune defenses in lab tests — Electrically stimulating an acupoint below the knee increased immune cells like natural killer (NK) cells and T-cells, which help fight infections and maintain immune balance.

• Small trials show symptom improvement — Patients who received acupuncture along with standard care had lower sepsis severity scores and fewer inflammatory markers. Mortality didn’t change, but these results are encouraging for future research.

Acupuncture Framed as Whole-System Support in the ICU

A 2024 narrative review in the Eurasian Journal of Anesthesiology & Intensive Care takes a big-picture look at acupuncture in critical care. Their goal was to identify how it not only works for one symptom, but also supports the entire system during severe illness.11 The researchers examined acupuncture as a whole-body support tool, drawing on both traditional acupuncture theory and modern ICU practice. Here’s what they found:

• Acupuncture is designed to restore balance during critical illness — In the ICU, where multiple systems are under stress simultaneously, acupuncture may help stabilize the body rather than targeting a single symptom.

• Multiple ICU-related health concerns are addressed at the same time — The authors grouped acupuncture’s potential benefits into eight areas, including pain management, anxiety and stress relief, improving sleep quality, side effect reduction, respiratory problems, treatment of circulatory shock, nutritional support, and functional recovery after critical illness.

• Mental health and sleep take center stage — Anxiety and poor sleep weren’t treated as secondary issues. They’re highlighted as primary targets for acupuncture due to their impact on healing and overall well-being.

• Reducing side effects from drugs is a major benefit — By easing symptoms like pain or nausea, acupuncture could help lower medication doses, reducing risks from sedatives and opioids.

Acupuncture Can Help with Multiple Conditions

Providing support for ICU-related problems and alleviating chronic pain are just some of the health advantages associated with acupuncture. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it also shows promise for helping improve the following conditions:12

Neurological and pain-related conditions
Internal and digestive disorders
Women’s reproductive health
Other conditions

Headaches
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhea
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)

Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Epigastralgia (peptic ulcer, gastritis, gastrospasm)
Induction of labor
Depression (including depressive neurosis and post-stroke depression)

Neck pain
Biliary colic
Malposition of fetus
Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy

Knee and back pain
Renal colic

Sciatica
Morning sickness

Stroke
Leukopenia

Tennis elbow
Hypertension

Sprain
Hypotension

Rheumatoid arthritis
Nausea and vomiting

Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)

Postoperative pain

Thinking About Trying Out Acupuncture?

If you’re dealing with back pain or other nagging issues, acupuncture might be a natural way to find relief. It’s safe, effective, and supported by growing research — but it’s not something you can easily try at home. Ideally, acupuncture requires the help of a trained professional and needs to be done in a clean setting, using sterile, single-use needles. Here are tips to keep note of:13

1. Talk to your doctor first — Before booking your first session, check in with your primary care doctor. They’ll review your health history and make sure acupuncture is safe for your situation, especially if you’re pregnant, on blood thinners, or have cancer or a bleeding disorder.

2. Look for a licensed expert — In the U.S., choose someone with the credential LAc, short for licensed acupuncturist. This means they’ve passed national exams or met your state’s training requirements. If you’re outside the U.S., check with your local health board or traditional medicine council for certified providers.

3. Know what to expect at your visit — A typical acupuncture session lasts about an hour. Your first visit might run longer because you’ll discuss your symptoms and goals. The needling part usually takes 30 to 40 minutes, and you’ll rest quietly during that time.

4. Pay attention to how you feel afterward — Some people notice immediate results after one session, while others may need several. It’s common to feel sleepy, relaxed, or even more alert right after. You might also notice better sleep, digestion, or mood over time — your body will respond in its own way.

If you want to learn more about how it works, read, “Study Reveals Previously Unknown Mechanism Behind Acupuncture’s Ability to Reduce Pain.”

Not a Fan of Needles? Here’s How You Can Still Try Acupuncture

Acupuncture involves more than just needles — methods like electricity, lasers, and acupressure can also stimulate acupuncture points. For example, cancer patients receiving radiotherapy experienced reduced nausea and better sleep and mood, regardless of whether they received real or simulated acupuncture.

One popular needle-free technique is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called psychological acupressure. EFT involves tapping specific meridian points with the fingertips while focusing on a problem and voicing positive affirmations.14 This process helps clear emotional blocks and restore balance in your body’s energy system, which is essential for healing and overall well-being. You can practice EFT on your own, but for better results, working with a skilled practitioner is recommended.

Drug-Free Therapies That Support ICU Recovery

Acupuncture isn’t the only tool that helps the body heal without relying on more medications. ICU patients often deal with pain, sleep disruption, anxiety, and muscle weakness — issues that aren’t always solved with pharmaceutical interventions alone. You can also try out:

• Mindfulness practices — Practices like focused attention meditation can help dial down pain intensity. These techniques change how the brain interprets pain signals, offering relief with virtually no side effects.

•  Massage therapy — Massage has been shown to ease muscle tension, reduce anxiety, and improve sleep in patients recovering from surgery or critical illness. It’s a gentle, noninvasive option that may improve circulation and reduce discomfort associated with long-term bed rest.

• Music therapy — Live or recorded music — especially when personalized to the patient — has been shown to reduce ICU-related anxiety, lower blood pressure, and help calm patients during mechanical ventilation. Music stimulates brain areas involved in healing and relaxation, making it a powerful complement to acupuncture and other sensory-based therapies.

• Post-ICU lifestyle habits that help with recovery — After ICU discharge, implementing healthy lifestyle habits is vital to support the healing process. Here are important considerations to remember:

◦ Swap seed oils for stable fats — Too much linoleic acid (LA) from oils like soybean, corn, and sunflower drives chronic inflammation. Reducing LA to below 5 grams per day may support mitochondrial health and reduce oxidative stress in recovery. Cut out vegetable oils and choose stable fats like ghee or beef tallow.

If you want to take the guesswork out of seed oils, I recommend signing up for the Mercola Health Coach app, which is due out shortly. Its Seed Oil Sleuth feature will help you track your LA intake automatically.

◦ Eat more omega-3s from clean sources — Krill oil or wild-caught fish like Alaskan salmon help cool inflammation and protect cells. These fats support recovery of the heart, brain, and immune system after illness or trauma.

◦ Get regular, safe sun exposure — Sunlight boosts vitamin D, which plays a role in immune function and pain sensitivity. Just 15 to 30 minutes a day can help rebalance circadian rhythms and mood after hospitalization. However, make sure to eliminate LA from your diet for at least four to six months before getting peak midday sun exposure. Read “Beyond Vitamin D Production — How Sensible Sun Exposure Supports Overall Health” for more information.

Acupuncture isn’t here to replace modern medicine — it’s here to help the body remember how to heal. In the ICU, machines and medications keep patients stable, but recovery begins when balance returns. Even when illness drains strength, sleep, and clarity, acupuncture offers steady hope: it calms the nervous system, eases stress and pain, and creates the quiet conditions where healing can begin again.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About How Acupuncture Supports ICU Recovery

Q: What is acupuncture, and how does it work?
A: Acupuncture is a natural therapy that involves stimulating specific points on the body, usually with thin, sterile needles, to promote healing. It is based on the flow of ‘Qi’ (pronounced chee), or life energy. When Qi is blocked, pain and illness can develop. Acupuncture helps restore that flow, reducing pain, enhancing sleep, and supporting the immune system, all by activating the body’s own healing response.

Q: How can acupuncture help with inflammation and sepsis in ICU patients?
A: Studies suggest acupuncture may reduce inflammation, oxidative stress, and tiny blood vessel damage seen in sepsis, while supporting immune balance. Small trials found lower sepsis severity scores, though it does not replace standard infection treatment.

Q: What ICU problems can acupuncture support at the same time?
A: Reviews report acupuncture may support pain control, anxiety and stress relief, sleep quality, reduced medication side effects, breathing support, circulation and immune function, digestion and nutrition, and physical recovery during critical illness.

Q: What role does EFT play in ICU-friendly acupuncture care?
A: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) use fingertip tapping on acupuncture points to calm the nervous system and release emotional tension. It’s a needle-free option that offers many of acupuncture’s benefits for patients uncomfortable with or ineligible for needles.

Q: What lifestyle changes support drug-free recovery after ICU discharge?
A: Reducing seed oils, consuming clean omega-3s, and getting safe sunlight can decrease inflammation, aid immune repair, and restore your body’s rhythm — all without needing additional medications.

1 What is glyphosate’s primary role in conventional agriculture?

Killing weeds by disrupting plant growth pathways
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide designed to kill plants by blocking a metabolic process essential for their growth. Learn more.
Preventing insect infestations in crops
Increasing the vitamin content of grains
Speeding up seed germination in organic farms

2 What is a risk of excess high-intensity exercise?

Sleep quality may suffer because of extra energy
Metabolism may slow down, depending on genetics
Social anxiety may worsen especially for younger people
Mitochondria and glucose control get disrupted
Extreme training can shut down mitochondria and disrupt blood sugar control. Learn more.

3 What mainly changes in your brain after lots of short-form video exposure?

Language skills and creativity
Sense of humor and optimism
Impulse control and stress regulation
Short-form video habits can also affect your attention aside from your self-control, and how your brain regulates stress. Learn more.
Hand-eye coordination and reflexes

4 How long does it take to see improvements in liver health from regular exercise?

Within one to two weeks of starting activity
After several years of consistent training
Only once major weight loss occurs
Within eight to 12 weeks of consistent exercise
Studies show liver fat reduction usually appears within eight to 12 weeks, while programs lasting six months or longer deliver stronger, longer-lasting metabolic benefits. Learn more.

5 Which factor receives little research funding despite being a major driver of heart disease risk?

Genetic cholesterol disorders
Environmental and endothelial damage
Pollution, lead exposure, chronic stress, and vessel damage drive heart disease risk but attract little funding because they cannot be patented or monetized like drugs. Learn more.
Dietary cholesterol intake and monitoring
Optimal statin dosing strategies

6 Why did Europe release its first clinical guide for photobiomodulation (PBM) in cancer care?

To standardize supportive light-based care in oncology
A clinical guide provides consistent treatment standards, making it easier for cancer centers to use PBM safely and effectively across Europe. Learn more.
To replace chemotherapy with light-based treatments
To limit PBM use to experimental research only
To regulate cosmetic light therapy clinics

7 Where does Big Food concentrate much of its marketing?

Whole food co-ops and local markets
Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)
Ultraprocessed foods aimed at children
Big Food targets children by marketing ultraprocessed snacks as fun, normalizing poor nutrition early. Learn more.
Public health clinics and nutritionists

Test Your Knowledge with
The Master Level Quiz

1 Why should regulatory claims about glyphosate safety be questioned?

Key studies with secret industry backing were retracted
Confidence in glyphosate safety is weakened when key studies are retracted for ethical reasons and hidden industry ties. Learn more.
Regulators have banned all research on glyphosate for profit motives
Organic farmers control most of the published studies
Safety claims are based only on animal testing and not human consumption

2 Why is it hard to get much thymoquinone from black cumin seed oil?

The oil is hard to find
Thymoquinone is destroyed by cooking
There’s very little thymoquinone in the oil
Thymoquinone is the main beneficial compound in black cumin seed oil, but only tiny amounts are present in the oil. Learn more.
Most brands add sugar, which disrupts the chemical makeup

3 What is one effective way to reduce glyphosate exposure?

Choosing organic or regeneratively farmed foods
Eating organic or regeneratively farmed foods helps lower glyphosate exposure by avoiding crops treated with herbicides. Learn more.
Rinsing all produce with hot water to remove residue
Avoiding all fresh fruits and vegetables sold in grocery stores
Taking daily vitamin supplements to increase antioxidant effectiveness

4 Which activity is most reliable for long-term brain health?

Heavy weightlifting
Daily sprint intervals
Marathon training
Regular moderate walking
Moderate, consistent walking is linked to slower brain decline and fewer metabolic problems. Learn more.

5 Which is a recommended way to avoid per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics?

Check labels for “perfluoro-” or “polyfluoro-”
Checking for “perfluoro-” or “polyfluoro-” on labels is the most direct way to avoid per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics. Learn more.
Choose only fragrance-free beauty products
Wash your face more often with cold water
Buy products labeled “hypoallergenic”

6 What opportunistic pathogen often rises in the gut after a colonoscopy?

Bacteroides
Lactobacillus
Firmicutes
Proteobacteria
Proteobacteria thrive when the gut is disrupted, quickly taking advantage of higher oxygen and stress after procedures like colonoscopies. Learn more.

7 Which approach is most effective for rebuilding focus?

Relying on willpower alone
Ignoring phone use and multitasking
Creating focus blocks
Changing your environment and setting daily focus periods helps restore attention better than relying on willpower. Learn more.
Taking daily memory supplements

8 Why do vision problems often appear before heart symptoms?

Large arteries handle stress longer than small vessels in the body
Eyesight conditions need more time to develop than chest pain
Heart and eye symptoms always appear together
Small eye vessels show damage from poor blood flow sooner
Tiny blood vessels in the eyes are affected by poor circulation before larger heart arteries show problems. Learn more.

9 How many Americans are affected by Type 2 diabetes?

Fewer than 5 million
About 8 million
Nearly 18 million
Over 38 million
More than 38 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes, and the number keeps rising. Learn more.

10 Which combination of exercise produces the strongest improvements for fatty liver disease?

Stretching, flexibility exercises, and some calisthenics
Aerobic exercise combined with resistance training
Combining aerobic and resistance exercise improves fat burning, insulin signaling, and blood sugar regulation more effectively than either exercise type alone. Learn more.
Resistance training without cardiovascular activity
Light walking performed a few times per week

11 Which kind of fat is most strongly linked to low vitamin D levels?

Visceral fat
Visceral fat, stored deep around organs, has the strongest association with low vitamin D levels. Learn more.
Subcutaneous fat
Fatty acids
Neck fat

12 Which neurotransmitter helps with memory, attention, learning, and emotional regulation?

Dopamine
Acetylcholine
Acetylcholine supports memory, attention, learning, and mood by helping nerve cells communicate. Learn more.
Serotonin
GABA

13 Which substance found in plaques explains why clots resist breaking down?

Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad cholesterol
Red blood cells
Lipoprotein A
Lipoprotein A helps patch artery damage but makes clots harder to dissolve, promoting plaque buildup and raising heart attack risk. Learn more.
Dietary fats

14 Which of these isn’t released by microbes from fermented foods?

Acids
Enzymes
Metabolites
Hormones
Fermented food microbes release acids, enzymes, and metabolites — but not hormones — when passing through your gut. Learn more.

15 What role does brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) play in mental health?

It slows down brain development in childhood
It raises stress hormones during anxiety
It blocks new connections between brain cells
It supports learning, mood stability, and stress resilience
BDNF helps brain cells grow and connect, promoting learning, stable mood, and the ability to handle stress. Learn more.

16 Which cancer-related complications have the strongest clinical support for photobiomodulation (PBM)?

Fatigue and nausea from chemotherapy
Oral mucositis and radiation-related skin damage
Clinical research shows PBM is especially helpful for easing pain and healing mouth sores and skin reactions caused by cancer treatment. Learn more.
Hair loss and immune suppression
Infection risk and blood cell loss

17 What hormone is commonly known as the “bonding hormone”?

Oxytocin
Oxytocin is called the “bonding hormone” because it promotes connection and lowers stress. Learn more.
Cortisol
Insulin
Adrenaline

18 What happens to the brain when someone has long-term high blood pressure?

Attention and learning get a measurable boost
More oxygen reaches all brain regions over time
Blood flow drops and memory-related areas shrink
Long-term high blood pressure reduces brain blood flow and shrinks areas critical for memory, focus, and decision-making. Learn more.
Nerves controlling relaxation become more active

19 Which of the following is not considered a real food alternative to Big Food?

EatWild.com and Local Harvest
Digital farmers market platforms
Pasture-based meat and raw dairy
National frozen meal distribution centers
Industrial frozen meal brands reflect Big Food’s model, unlike small-scale, regenerative, or farm-direct options. Learn more.

20 Overconsumption of which type of oil poses a major threat to mitochondrial and skin health?

Seed oils high in omega-6 fatty acids
Omega-6-rich seed oils impair mitochondrial energy production and increase vulnerability to sun-related skin damage when consumed in excess. Learn more.
Olive oil high in monounsaturated fats
Fish oil rich in omega-3 fatty acids
Coconut oil high in saturated fats

21 How many daily grams (g) of carbohydrates helps maintain metabolic health?

50 g
100 g
250 g
Around 250 g of carbohydrates daily supports thyroid function and lowers stress hormones, while overly low-carb intake raises cortisol and strains metabolism. Learn more.
400 g

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 23, 2019.

Zen Honeycutt, founder of Moms Across America, is nothing if not committed to action. In this inspiring interview, we discuss her book, “Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle Into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community,” which delves into the state of the world’s food supply, how to navigate through the many hazards of the standard American diet, and how you can become a powerful change agent yourself.

Like so many other parents, Honeycutt struggled to identify the roots of her children’s many health issues, which included allergies, autoimmune problems and symptoms of autism.

“I was completely confused and baffled,” she says. “Why was this happening? My kids had 19, 20 and 22 food allergies [respectively]. My husband and I had none of them. What was going on with the food supply? Thanks to Robyn O’Brien, Jeffrey Smith and all the scientists who started exposing information, I found out about genetically modified organisms (GMOs).”

She also discovered the disturbing truth about glyphosate, and how this pernicious weed killer, used on a wide variety of foods, whether they’re GMO or not, decimates your gut microbiome and contributes to a host of health problems, some of which plagued her own children.

“The problem is glyphosate’s so prevalent. This is the declared active chemical ingredient in Roundup that 80% of GMOs are engineered to withstand. It’s sprayed on all kinds of crops as a drying agent. It’s in most of our food.

And then you combine that with all the other toxins in our environment, in our vaccines, in our pajamas, in our sofas and baby bottles and all of that — you’ve got all these chemicals and toxins coming at our kids. That’s just a recipe for disaster.

Our kids are sick. One out of 2 children have a chronic illness; 1 in 2 males and 1 in 3 females are expected to get cancer in America today. That’s not OK with me. That was the impetus for me starting Moms Across America. It was to raise awareness about GMOs and toxic chemicals in our food supply.”

Standing Up to Monsanto

On January 30, 2015, Honeycutt was given the opportunity to speak at a Monsanto shareholders meeting1 as a proxy for the John Harrington Investment Group. You can read her presentation here. The referendum she presented was passed, causing Monsanto’s stock to significantly drop in the aftermath.

“I think a lot of the shareholders in that room probably were uncomfortable with owning Monsanto’s stock after that meeting,” she says. “That was probably one of the most terrifying and significant moments of my life, because I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of parents … with sick children.

I got to stand up in front of the entire shareholders meeting and basically hold them to account, to say how their products are harming our children. I got to meet Hugh Grant … the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Monsanto.

I looked him in the eye and said, ‘You know, Mr. Grant, it takes a big man to make a big and powerful company. But it takes an even bigger man to acknowledge when something’s not working and to go in a new direction … Moms Across America is looking forward to the day when Monsanto makes products that no longer harm our children.’

He said, ‘We’re always looking forward to have progress. We’ve got science on our side.’ I said, ‘Well, we actually have science on our side too, [and it shows] that your products harm our children … Just consider, what if you’re wrong? What are the consequences?’ … There’s … global consequence.’

He said, ‘If you’re wrong, you’re worrying an awful lot of people.’ I said, ‘But if I’m wrong, the consequence is only that people are eating organic. There’s nothing wrong with organic’ …

So many of us get concerned about … ‘What if trolls come after me? What if I get attacked?’ People are actually concerned for their physical safety in this climate right now. But … we cannot be stopped … We need to be unstoppable … We cannot let fear interfere with our commitment. We need to take action … Chemical companies should not be involved in our food supply. That’s all there is to it.”

As noted by Honeycutt, it’s important to realize that the science Monsanto (now Bayer) claims is on their side was bought and paid for by them. Some studies have even been shown to have been ghostwritten by the company itself. Such facts have come out during the discovery process of some of the lawsuits against Monsanto, which now number well over 11,000.

Meanwhile, many peer-reviewed, independent studies have found glyphosate-based herbicides to be carcinogenic.2 Glyphosate has also been shown to be a DNA mutagen, a chelator of important minerals,3 an antibiotic,4 an endocrine disruptor5,6 and more.7,8,9,10,11

Research12 even found that among children born of women with high exposure to glyphosate during pregnancy the rate of autism spectrum disorder with intellectual disability was 30% higher than among those born of mothers who lived further from highly-sprayed areas. Children who on top of that were exposed to pesticides during their first year were at 50% increased risk.

As noted by Honeycutt, while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s review13 found glyphosate was not a carcinogen, its conclusion was based on industry-funded science, not independent science. In fact, according to some of the members on the scientific advisory panel convened to evaluate the strength of the EPA’s decision, the agency violated its own guidelines by discounting and downplaying data from studies linking glyphosate to cancer.14

Turning Devastation Into Triumph

More often than not, people who stand up to big industry end up paying a high price. Many lose their careers in the process. A similar situation, although impossible to prove, happened to the Honeycutts. Two weeks after Honeycutt attended Monsanto’s shareholders meeting, an outside consultant came into and reorganized her husband’s company.

“My husband was the only one fired,” Honeycutt says. “Now, I can’t say that it was definitely connected to Monsanto, but Monsanto was one of their clients. My husband was in the information technology (IT) division. He had nothing to do with Monsanto. He had nothing to do with sales. I don’t even think he knew that they were a client for a very long time, not until I got into this.

He lost his job. At first we thought it was devastating … But … everything that seems devastating can actually be the best thing that ever happened to you … We made this into the best thing that ever happened to us. My husband got search engine optimization training. He became a consultant. His company is called Organic Results.

He now does consulting for companies that we believe in, to improve the traffic to their websites. He’s a consultant for Moms Across America. He runs our marketing. He … helps us with our Health Solutions Store … He’s been an integral part of Moms Across America, and part of the reason why we’re able to still stay around.

The cool thing is we get to work together every day. He gets to be with our sons who are 16, 13 and 10 now. They get to have their dad around. It’s just phenomenal. I just absolutely love that we get to do what we’re doing.”

Eating Organic Can Make a World of Difference

As mentioned, all three of Honeycutt’s children struggled with food allergies. Her oldest son had a severe allergic reaction at 18 months after eating a nut. At the age of 5, he nearly died on Thanksgiving due to a pecan in the stuffing.

“One day, when he was about 8 years old, he had this rash around his mouth that had been going on and off for about seven months. It would last for about two weeks at a time. We didn’t know what it was. He looked at me really forlornly. He said, ‘Mom, I wish all my allergies would go away.’ I said, ‘Me too, buddy.’ But in my head, I was thinking, ‘That’s never going to happen.’

Then I realized what I was saying in my head. I was like, ‘Wait a second. That’s not what I’m committed to. I’m committed to empowerment. What if there was something we could do?’ I remembered my cousin, Sara, who had gone gluten-free for a long time and then was able to eat gluten about a year later.

I said, ‘Ben, would you like to be able to eat a slice of pizza or have a piece of birthday cake at a birthday party like a year from now?’ I painted that picture; that future. He said yes. I said, ‘Well then, would you be my partner in your health? Would you drink green drinks and go to alternative doctors?’ He said yes … We made a deal, and he did.

I did the research. He took the actions. He drank the green drinks. We took care of his gut bacteria. Within four months of going GMO-free, the rash was dramatically better. You could barely see it. It was a faint pink line under his lip if he was exposed to the allergen, which we figured out was carrageenan, by going to an alternative doctor.

And then within about a year or two of going organic … his allergies to walnuts and pecans went from a 19 down to 0.2. He no longer has a life-threatening food allergy. The peace of mind that I have as a mother that my son won’t die from food is priceless. It’s enormous. Our doctors’ bills, by the way, are dramatically lower.

We used to spend $12,000 to $15,000 with good health insurance. Now it’s maybe a couple hundred. It’s nothing. That’s just for checkups or whatever. We haven’t had to go for a sick doctor visit in three and a half years. He’s dramatically better.”

Autism Symptoms Linked to Glyphosate Exposure

Honeycutt’s second child developed a sudden onset of autism symptoms. “He was basically like an 8-year-old who was acting like a 3- or 4-year old. He was having tantrums. His grades went from As to Ds in math … His behavior was very erratic. He was trying to hit us … He was not being himself.” Honeycutt says.

A medical checkup revealed he had gut dysbiosis caused by C. difficile. According to the doctor, who specialized in autism, the inflammation in his gut was also causing inflammation in his brain. Glyphosate is known to do this, which prompted the Honeycutt’s to have him tested for glyphosate exposure.

“My son was the first one to be tested in America for glyphosate in his urine. We had finally initiated that. Moms Across America had put out the word to everybody. You can get your urine, your tap water and your breast milk tested for glyphosate.

His levels were eight times higher than was ever found in Europe, when Friends of the Earth did testing in Europe. I was furious that Roundup was in my son. We went 100% organic. Within six weeks, we retested him. His glyphosate levels were no longer detectable, and his autism symptoms were gone.

All we did was take care of his gut. We did give him an antifungal. We didn’t have to do a probiotic in there, but we gave him lots of sauerkraut, organic food. He ate no sugar from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, so he didn’t feed the bad gut bacteria. He recovered. He has not had a single autism symptom [in] five years now.”

Glyphosate Found in Vaccines

Now, food is not the only source of glyphosate exposure. Years ago, Honeycutt came across a Facebook post listing vaccine ingredients. Among them: polysorbate 80 — which like glyphosate can break down the blood-brain barrier and let toxins in — aluminum, bovine serum (blood) and egg.

Honeycutt realized some of these ingredients are likely GMO, or have been fed GMOs, and if so, they’re likely contaminated with glyphosate since glyphosate cannot be washed off. When an animal eats glyphosate-contaminated feed, their body parts become contaminated as well. Moms Across America sent five childhood vaccines to be tested for glyphosate, and every single one of them came back positive.

“The measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine came back 25 times higher than the other vaccines. Another scientist independently tested 14 more vaccines, and they also came back and confirmed our results,” Honeycutt says.

“His MMR vaccine came back 35 times higher. We all know that the problem around the MMR vaccine is that … it causes gut dysbiosis. [Andrew Wakefield] didn’t say it causes autism. He said it causes gut dysbiosis. Incidentally, practically every child who has autism has gut dysbiosis.

This, to me, was huge, because what I’m thinking is, ‘What if glyphosate in vaccines is one of the major contributing factors to vaccine damage?’ If you think about it, mercury was in vaccines back in 1929, but it wasn’t until the late ’90s when GMOs and glyphosate came on the scene that there was a huge spike in autism.

Now, to be fair, there was also a huge spike in the numbers of vaccines given. Our children are now getting 49 doses by age 12 and 69 doses by age 18. The numbers of vaccines our children are getting are also extremely high. But there are children who get one vaccine and they’re damaged after that. You have to look at what changed in the ingredients.”

Another variable that happened in the late ’90s was the dramatic increase in exposure to wireless radiation, and this too may be a significant contributor. There may even be a toxic synergy between the two that is contributing to the health deterioration we now see in so many children. The good news is that you have the ability to make a difference.

More Information

Aside from reading Honeycutt’s book, “Unstoppable: Transforming Sickness and Struggle Into Triumph, Empowerment and a Celebration of Community,” you can also learn more by visiting MomsAcrossAmerica.org and signing up for their newsletter. When you sign up, you’ll receive a free mini e-book of “Unstoppable.” Under the Action tab, you can also sign up to volunteer and post events.

“When you have that event, we know you’re serious about getting the word out, so we send you free materials,” Honeycutt says. “You only have to pay for shipping … We have some great flyers, ‘Why Eat Organic?’ ‘What’s Going on With Toxins in Our Food Supply?’ … We don’t make it a scary situation. It’s just informative. We always bring solutions …

You give them a stack of 100 flyers and you say, ‘Could you leave this at your school? Or your library? Or your community center?’ … Just get the word out about what’s happening in our food supply … That’s a great way to get involved … You can also join in the 4th of July parades. It costs anywhere from nothing to maybe 30 to 50 dollars, if you want to buy a banner and also pass out flyers.

You can have movie nights. There are some great movies you can show over an organic potluck. That’s my favorite thing to do. We’ll also connect you with other moms on our Monday Moms Connect Calls at 5 p.m., Pacific time. If you sign up to our newsletter, you’ll get an invitation to that.

We’ve expanded our mission to ‘We educate and inspire mothers and others to transform the food industry and environment, creating healthy communities together.’ By environment, we include anything that’s coming at our kids. If that’s a vaccine, if it’s drugs, if it’s pollution, if it’s EMFs — no matter what it is that’s coming at our kids that’s going to overwhelm them [or] increase the toxic burden — we will address that …

To opt out of this toxic system, we need to not only eat organic food or grow our own organic food. We need to also learn how to take care of ourselves through herbs and plants and opt out of that whole Big Pharma system.”

Moms Across America is also looking for more advisers, including moms who want to help educate others on these topics. If you’re interested, please contact them.

Get Involved!

As noted by Honeycutt, everyone has a moment when they decide to take action. For her, the realization that she had the power to make a difference came early. Her father was a great supporter from an early age and when, at the age of 12, Honeycutt came home saying class president elections were coming up, he suggested she should run.

“I said, ‘Me? Why me?’ He said, ‘Why not?’ I was like, ‘Oh. OK. Why not?’ I ran and won,” she says. “If there’s something you want to do or you’re interested in doing, something you want to take on, [ask yourself] why not you? That quote from Lilly Tomlin: ‘I always thought someone should do something about that, and then I realized I am somebody’ — that’s it.

I want everybody to believe that they are somebody; that they are, in fact … amazing … My personal commitment now is to empower community leaders to be global game changers, because that’s what it’s going to take …

Moms who are watching us right now … say, ‘You know what? I’m the one who’s going to get Roundup out of my town. I’m the one who’s going to stop this vaccine mandate in my city. I’m the one who’s going to get my school to have GMO-free food.’

When you do that, you — us, all of us collectively — we change the game around the world … So, sign up to Moms Across America and see where you can start taking action. Because when you do, it’s incredibly fulfilling.”

By Dr. Mercola
Over the years, I’ve written a number of articles outing industry front groups1 such as the Genetic Literacy Project, the American Council for Science and Health (ACSH),2 Science 2.0, GMO Answers, Independent Women’s Forum, Science Codex, Center for Consumer Freedom and the Center for Inquiry.
Once you start to investigate these front groups, you’ll find the same names appearing again and again, cowriting articles, interviewing each other and referring to each other’s work in a closed loop.
I’ve also written about academics and journalists who, while presenting themselves as independent experts, are actually shills for industry. This is a fairly close-knit group of individuals, so the worst actors are not hard to identify based on their associations.
Well-established actors include Forbes contributor Kavin Senapathy,3 Henry Miller, Steven Salzberg,4 Bruce Chassy, Jon Entine,5,6 Kevin Folta, Keith Kloor7 and Mark Lynas.
Learn to Recognize Astroturfing When You See It

In the TED Talk above, award-winning investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson discusses strategies used by industry to manipulate public opinion and steer online discussion.
A strategy that has become phenomenally popular with the advent of social media is astroturfing, which is when a special interests group creates a fake grassroots campaign for or against a particular agenda. You might think it’s a group of moms devoted to children’s health that is touting the benefits of GMOs or vaccines, for example, when in fact the campaign is run by industry.
Increasingly over the past year or so you may have seen a number of articles simultaneously criticizing both the “anti-vaxxers” and “anti-GMO movement,” making contemptuous and sometimes wildly insulting comments about people who question the safety of either of these industries and their wares.
While GMOs and vaccines may seem like strange bedfellows, the cross-linking of these two industries in propaganda material is neither accidental nor haphazard.
Industry Messaging Example

In a May 18, 2017 Forbes article,8 Senapathy (one well-known mouthpiece for the GMO industry) took aim at the “anti-vaccine and anti-GMO movements,” saying they’re “inextricably linked and cause preventable suffering.”

“The thoroughly answered question of whether vaccines cause autism isn’t really a question outside of conspiracy-theorist circles,” Senapathy writes.

“The body of evidence shows that vaccination has … vastly reduced suffering and death … and that vaccines don’t cause autism, cancer, dementia or long term health problems, and that any minute risk is vastly outweighed by benefits to individuals and society.

Yet with the backing of prominent leaders like Robert DeNiro and Robert Kennedy Jr., anti-vaccine groups fuel common narratives that keep herd immunity down, directly leading to suffering and death.

Now with Donald Trump embracing vaccine skeptics, the anti-vaccine movement has earned a hallowed place on the shelf next to other tinfoil hat clad schools of thought.

The question of the safety of genetically engineered crops (GMOs) has been answered just as thoroughly, and the anti-GMO movement deserves its own place on the same shelf, not just for being wrong but for its role in unconscionable suffering …

She goes on to point out how similar the communication tactics are between vaccine and GMO detractors. Ironically, her article reveals just as much if not more about the biotech and vaccine industries’ messaging tactics. You can go through her article and check off numerous boxes for how to spot a piece of industry propaganda.
That includes the claim that the science is settled (which automatically precludes the need for further discussion), citing a fellow industry shill (in this case Kloor), using strong, derogatory language when describing those who disagree with industry talking points, making ample references to “conspiracy theories” and “other tinfoil hat clad schools of thought.”
Seven Classic Propaganda Techniques

Whenever you hear or read that someone is a “quack,” and that “the science has been settled,” or that something is “science-based,” it’s probably a smear campaign created by an astroturf group, industry front group or paid shill. In fact, the seven techniques of propaganda have been clearly delineated and are used without exception by most industries. As noted by writer Morgan Crouch in his article, “What Are the Seven Techniques of Propaganda?” these include:9

Name calling — Derogatory terms or discriminatory words used to arouse suspicion and prejudice
Glittering generalities — Slogans, catchphrases and highly generalized statements that sound good but mean little and prove nothing (such as “the science is settled”)
Transfer — The linking of a company/industry idea with a revered symbol
Testimonial — Testimony by a respected authority, similar to celebrity endorsement
Plain folks — Corporate material presented by someone who appears to be “just like you” — someone who shares your concerns and ideals
Bandwagon — Creating the illusion that there’s a consensus, which capitalizes on people’s inherent desire to be on the “right” side
Card stacking — Using only those facts that support the company’s/industry’s ideas, with the aim of making you assume these facts are conclusive. As noted by Crouch, “By ‘stacking cards against the truth,’ propagandists can control the beliefs of their audience”

Pesticide and Vaccine Partnerships Revealed
While Senapathy tries to show how those who question the safety of either GMOs or vaccines are all alike — that is, tinfoil hat-wearing lunatics who follow flat earth theories in their spare time — what she ultimately achieves is a perfect example of industry PR.
This systematic messaging strategy has been carefully developed, and is known to have a penetrating psychological effect. Both the vaccine and biotechnology industries use the same terminology and the same psychological assault strategies to make you feel like you’re in the wrong — or worse.

In her article, Senapathy basically accuses all vaccine and GMO safety advocates of being killers, merely for asking questions and not settling for non-answers, and doing what they think is right for their own health and that of their children.
Another article10 that connects the vaccine and chemical technology industries was recently published by The Feed.
In it, Ashleigh Morse, Ph.D., whose training centers on psychology and the influence of environmental cues on decision-making, and who says she works as a consultant to “a range of clients” in the field of science communication and public health,11 argues that juries are incapable of assessing the validity of scientific evidence presented in court, or the validity of the scientific methods used.
Specifically, Morse — whose professional credits include a single published research paper listed on her LinkedIN bio on the role of opioid processes in reward and decision-making — is referring to the recent jury verdict against Monsanto, but she goes on to link that to vaccine science. “When juries decide on the science, we get autism linked to vaccines and the Monsanto verdict,” she writes.
When In Doubt, Blame the Russians

Then there’s the curious claim that the Russians are to blame for Americans’ lack of faith in vaccine safety.12 According to a recent paper13 published in the American Journal of Public Health, Russian trolls and Soviet-directed Twitter bots promoted anti-vaccine information on social media to “amplify the vaccine debate” and create dissent in the U.S.
According to the authors, “Accounts masquerading as legitimate users create false equivalency, eroding public consensus on vaccination,” and “Directly confronting vaccine skeptics enables bots to legitimize the vaccine debate.” Those two sentences are interesting and revealing indeed.
In a nutshell, they’re saying that by providing anti-vaccine content, these bots made it seem as though there was actually something to discuss when, in the opinion of the authors, no discussion about vaccine safety should occur at all.
Apparently, it is their view that the vaccine debate is “illegitimate,” since there’s “public consensus” on vaccines (refer back to the bandwagon strategy, No. 6 in the propaganda list above).
In other words, everyone knows vaccines are safe; the science is settled, so there’s no valid reason to question it. Summing up the alleged Russian bots’ efforts to sway public opinion against vaccination, the authors referred to it as “weaponized health communication.”
The Russians Did It Again

Coincidentally, the vaccine paper above was submitted for publication shortly after news stories began circulating claiming the Russians were behind anti-GMO rhetoric.14 Minnesota Farm Living writes:15

“Researchers from Iowa State University (Shawn Dorius and Carolyn Lawrence-Dill) wanted to better understand the controversy around genetically engineered food.16 The issue is with the overwhelming belief in the science community is that GMOs are safe, consumers still question their safety. Dorius and Lawrence-Dill wanted to find out why.

What they found was surprising. The ISU researchers looked at not only how U.S. publications portrayed GMOs but also looked at the American versions of RT and Sputknik, two Russian publications. They counted how many times the term ‘GMO’ was used in different publications …

They went a step further and analyzed the tone of each article. What they found is the Russian publications were overwhelming anti-GMO. The articles talked negatively about environmental risks, nutrition concerns, and health risks of GMOs.”

Here, the author links to the “Are GMOs Safe?” page on the Genetic Literacy Project’s website as evidence to support GMO safety. But, the Genetic Literacy Project is a well-known front group for the GMO industry and hardly a reliable source of impartial information.
As for why the Russians would want to spread anti-GMO rhetoric in the U.S., the study authors note Russia has an interest in creating division among the American people to weaken the country as a whole, and to promote their own agricultural exports, as Russia banned GMOs in 2016 and is trying to increase its exports of organic food.
Claim of Scientific Consensus on GMO Safety Is Patently False
In the Minnesota Farm Living article cited above, you can see the telltale industry rhetoric in the sentence, “the overwhelming belief in the science community is that GMOs are safe, [yet] consumers still question their safety.” The reality is there is no scientific consensus on the safety of GMOs.
That is in fact the title of a scientific statement17 published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe, January 24, 2015. The statement, aptly titled “No Scientific Consensus on GMO Safety,” was signed by 300 scientists, researchers, physicians and scholars.
What’s more, the paper states that the claim of scientific consensus on GMO safety is in actuality “an artificial construct that has been falsely perpetuated,” and that such a claim “is misleading and misrepresents or outright ignores the currently available scientific evidence and the broad diversity of scientific opinions among scientists on this issue.”
In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration still does not possess any evidence demonstrating safety because they do not do scientific reviews. And even if they did, hundreds of scientists say there’s no evidence demonstrating that genetically engineered foods are safe, and a number of independent studies have raised serious health concerns.
To learn more about how GMOs were introduced into the food supply without safety testing, see my two-part interview with attorney Steven Druker, author of “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth.” (Part 1, Part 2.)
GMO-Vaccine Convergence
The reason for the joining of PR forces between the vaccine and biotech industries becomes clearer when you take into account the fact that GMOs are moving into the vaccine industry. The 2016 article,18 “GMOs Lead the Fight Against Zika, Ebola and the Next Unknown Pandemic,” published in The Conversation, asserts that GMOs play a “vital role” in medicine, adding:

“Most modern biomedical advances, especially the vaccines used to eradicate disease and protect against pandemics … rely on the same molecular biology tools that are used to create genetically modified organisms.

To protect the public, scientists have embraced GMO technology to quickly study new health threats, manufacture enough protective vaccines, and monitor and even predict new outbreaks.”

Additionally, scientists are also exploring the possibility of vaccinating plants against pests as an alternative to using pesticides.19 In other words, it’s really quite crucial for these two bedfellows, strange as their joining may seem at first, to get people to embrace both genetic engineering and vaccines.
That’s why we’re now seeing more and more articles deriding both vaccine and GMO safety advocates in the same piece, whether it necessarily makes sense to do so or not.
Both of these industries are using the exact same messaging strategies — because so far they have worked — to achieve the same aim: Shame those who dare question the safety of either, and make them feel like ignorant outcasts and social misfits, thereby shutting down the conversation.
Preempting Your Rights
In my five-part “Ghost in the Machine” series, I discuss the many ways in which big industries manipulate science, and how they’ve captured our regulatory agencies and manipulate our political system. Here’s a listing of the series, in case you missed any of them:

“Introduction to Ghost in the Machine — A New Article Series That Exposes How Puppet Masters Control the Planet for Their Benefit”

“Ghost in the Machine, Part 1 — Drug Safety and Media Shaped by Big Pharma”

“Ghost in the Machine, Part 2 — Success Breeds Greed That Gets in the Way of Ethics, Common Sense and Caution”

“Ghost in the Machine, Part 3 — Pride and the Politics of Vaccines”

“Ghost in the Machine, Part 4 — The War on Supplements, Essential Oils and Homeopathy”

“Ghost in the Machine, Part 5 — Lies, Denial, Deceit and Manipulative ‘Research'”

A feature common to both the vaccine industry and the biotech industry is the use of legislation to preempt your rights and force you to use their products whether you want to or not, and without regard for the health consequences.
In recent years, I’ve written extensively about the vaccine industry’s attempts to mandate vaccines and eliminate personal belief exemptions across the U.S. In some cases, they’ve succeeded. In others, they’ve lost, but efforts to strip every American of their right to informed consent and medical freedom is ongoing.
The chemical technology industry is following the same agenda. One of the latest infringements on your rights is a provision in the Farm Bill that would block local governments from regulating pesticide use. The U.S. House committee approved the draft back in April. As noted by Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides:20

“This is really a backdoor attempt to interfere with state governments and local governments. I think the trend is for local governments to engage on this issue. This would undermine that.”

Monsanto Ghostwriting Shill Attempts to Tie USRTK to Russian Troll Efforts
A common corporate tactic is to use “third-party experts” to bring the industry’s message to the public under the cloak of independent opinion or expertise (No. 4, “Testimonial”). The idea is that academic types are far more credible than industry employees when it comes to defending the industry’s position.
A well-known spokesperson for the GMO industry is Henry Miller, who was thoroughly outed as a Monsanto shill during the 2012 Proposition 37 GMO labeling campaign in California. A “No on 37” advertisement had to be pulled off the air because Miller was fraudulently identified as being part of the Stanford University faculty.
Last year, Miller was outed yet again — this time as a ghostwriter for Monsanto. Forbes fired Miller when it became clear he had submitted ghostwritten material. On a relevant side note, Senapathy has cowritten articles with Miller, which is why some of her Forbes articles ended up being deleted as well,21 and the foreword for her book “Fear Babe” was written by Folta, a University of Florida professor who hid his financial ties to Monsanto.
The Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) discovery against Monsanto was led by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK). Proving he’s still working on Monsanto’s behalf, Miller penned a two-part article22,23 for Investor’s Business Daily this past summer, in which he tries — quite unsuccessfully — to tie USRTK to the alleged Russian GMO disinformation campaign.
The fact that they’re still turning to Miller is probably a sign of just how desperate Monsanto (now Bayer) has become. Other discovery documents obtained by USRTK included email correspondence revealing Monsanto has been quite desperate for a number of years already.
In an email dated February 26, 2015, Daniel Goldstein, senior science lead of medical sciences and outreach for Monsanto, tells Monsanto’s food safety scientific affairs lead, John Vicini, Ph.D.:24

In this email, Goldstein admits two pearls: First, the list of supporters willing to do their dirty work is short — which is why we keep seeing the same names pop up in pro-GMO propaganda pieces — and ACSH is a most valuable front group for the biotech industry.
Another Undercover Ambassador for GMO Industry Wants You to Think the Russians Are Responsible for ‘Anti-Vaccine Myths’

So, who else wants you to think that “the Russians did it”? Mark Lynas, a long-term shill for the GMO industry, just published: “Opinion: Russian Campaign to Spread Anti-Vaccine Myths Part of a Wider War on Science and Truth”25 on the Alliance for Science website.
As the other examples cited above, Lynas — normally a pro-GMO advocate — is now cross-linking GMOs and vaccines, closely mimicking the core message of Senapathy’s article, which is that “Many anti-GMO groups and anti-vaxxers are closely linked.”
Again, what we’re seeing is a crossover or merging of the GMO and vaccine industries in terms of messaging and propaganda angles. Rather than fighting public doubt separately, the shills for these industries are now putting out a single joint message that anyone who doubts the science presented by either of them is an anti-science nut job.
The take-home message here is that these tactics are nothing but a PR ploy. Yes, they’re trying to make you feel like an outsider, an outcast. They’re trying to make you feel ashamed of your “ignorance,” or worse, as if you’ve fallen for false propaganda propagated by evil Russians in an effort to divide and conquer.
But all you really need to do is look for the hallmarks of astroturfing, and you’ll quickly see through their ruse. You are not wrong for questioning flawed and biased science. You are not ignorant for questioning whether vaccines and GMOs might be unsafe when there’s a clear lack of evidence to support safety claims.
You are not a danger to the public for looking at the evidence and making your own decisions about whether or not you want your family to receive a particular vaccine or eat a certain food. Your inquiries and thought processes are only dangerous to the industries in question which, by the way, are willing to go to just about any lengths to hide the dangers of their products in order to maintain their profits. Stand your ground. It’s solid.

By Dr. Mercola

If you’ve ever had qualms about eating genetically modified (GM) foods, you’d likely be deeply concerned about receiving a GM vaccine as well.
Such vaccines are already being produced – some are even on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended vaccine schedule – even though, as is the case with GM foods, we know very little about their long-term effects.
In the interview above, Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, director of research and patient safety with the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), spoke with me about the many reasons to be very wary of this new technology, which is far more intertwined with other biotech “innovations,” like GM food, than you might think.

Nobody Knows What Happens When You Inject People with GM Vaccines

There have been some fair warnings, though. In 2006, researchers wrote in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health:1

“Genetically modified (GM) viruses and genetically engineered virus-vector vaccines possess significant unpredictability and a number of inherent harmful potential hazards… Horizontal transfer of genes… is well established. New hybrid virus progenies resulting from genetic recombination between genetically engineered vaccine viruses and their naturally occurring relatives may possess totally unpredictable characteristics with regard to host preferences and disease-causing potentials.
…There is inadequate knowledge to define either the probability of unintended events or the consequences of genetic modifications.”

Though this was six years ago, little has changed even as the technology has advanced. Today we have several different types of GM vaccines in production, development or research phases, such as:

DNA vaccines: DNA for a microbe’s antigens are introduced into the body, with the expectation that your cells will take up that DNA, which then instructs your cells to make antigen molecules. As the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (a division of the National Institutes of Health) put it, “In other words, the body’s own cells become vaccine-making factories.”2
Naked DNA vaccines: A type of DNA vaccine in which microscopic particles coated with DNA are administered directly into your cells.
Recombinant Vector vaccines: Similar to DNA vaccines, but they use a virus or bacteria to act as a vector (or “carrier) to introduce microbial DNA into your cells.

There are experimental GM vaccines being developed that use tumorigenic cancer cells and cells from humans, dogs, monkeys, cows, pigs, rodents, birds and insects. What happens when foreign DNA is inserted into the human body is a mystery. Will it trigger undesirable changes in human cells or tissues? Will it combine or exchange genetic material with human DNA? Will it transfer to future generations? No one knows…

“We don’t know what portion of the [GM] DNA can be incorporated into our own genome, we don’t know what portion could be inheritable to our children, we also don’t know what happens when the immune system is exposed to DNA that has been recombined in lots of ways that the human body, through the course of time, has never had any exposure to… what diseases of the immune system may occur because of these exposures,” Debold said.
“Use of foreign DNA in various forms has the potential to cause a great deal of trouble, not only because there is the potential for it to recombine with our own DNA, there is the potential for it to turn the DNA ‘switches,’ the epigenetic parts of the DNA, on and off.”

Vaccine Adjuvants Used in GM Vaccines May be Even More Toxic Than Usual

An adjuvant is added to a vaccine in order to boost the body’s immune reaction to the viral or bacterial antigen contained in a vaccine. Under ideal circumstances, the antigen is what your body responds to and makes antibodies against (e.g. the lab altered viral or bacterial organisms being injected). By boosting your body’s immune response in this artificial way, the vaccine manufacturer can use a smaller amount of antigen, which makes production less expensive and the product more profitable (although definitely not safer, as adjuvants are usually foreign substances, metals or chemicals which can cause the immune system to overreact and attack the host body.)
Aluminum is a common vaccine adjuvant and also a well-known neurotoxin that can cause chronic inflammation in the body, including the brain. Although aluminum adjuvants have been added to inactivated vaccines used for decades in the U.S., aluminum-based adjuvants are not strong enough for GM vaccines, according to Debold, so drug companies are primarily interested in using oil-based adjuvants, like squalene, and other substances that can hyper-stimulate the body’s immune response.
While oil-based vaccine adjuvants like squalene have been proven to generate powerful acute inflammatory immune responses that stimulate increased production of antibodies, they have also been associated with unresolved, chronic inflammation in the body that can cause brain and immune system dysfunction, including autoimmune diseases.3 While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far not licensed any vaccines distributed in the U.S. that contain squalene as an adjuvant, squalene adjuvants are used in some vaccines sold in Europe and other countries.

GM Vaccines You May Have Given to Your Kids…

Many are unaware that, despite the completely unknown long-term health consequences, GM vaccines are already in use and have been administered to American infants, children and adults for many years. Among them:

Hepatitis B vaccine: An inactivated recombinant DNA vaccine licensed for newborn infants and children in 1991, in which parts of the hepatitis B virus gene are cloned into yeast
Rotavirus vaccine: Live attenuated vaccines first licensed for infants and children licensed in 2006, which either contain genetically engineered human rotavirus strains or human-bovine hybridized reassortment rotavirus strains4
HPV vaccine (Gardasil or Cervarix): A recombinant vaccine licensed in 2006, which is prepared from virus-like particles (VLP’s) and may also include use of an insect-cell Baculovirus expression vector system for production

Then there are those “hybrid” vaccines that cross the (very narrow) threshold into the GM food realm… for instance, goats are being genetically engineered to become “pharm animals” that carry vaccines in their milk. If the experiments being conducted by researchers from Texas A&M are successful, they will produce an “edible” malaria vaccine, with the ultimate goal being that children drinking the milk will become vaccinated in the process. If vaccines in your milk sounds a bit to “out there,” it shouldn’t, as there are many connections between the companies that make GM food and those that make GM vaccines.

The Close Ties Between GM Foods and GM Vaccines

The companies that make vaccines and GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are deeply intertwined, only recently spinning off or merging to specialize in one or the other. Most vaccine revenues are earned by five companies that together held nearly 80 percent of the market in 2010:5

Sanofi Pasteur
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck & Co.
Pfizer
Novartis

These companies, which use genetic engineering to produce vaccines, are also primarily responsible for the introduction of genetic engineering into the food supply. For instance:

Genetic engineering giant Syngenta (third in total sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market) is the progeny of parent companies Novartis and AstraZeneca.
In 2001, Bayer CropScience became a leading genetically engineered crop producer with its purchase of Aventis’ agribusiness division.6
In 2004, Aventis merged with and into Sanofi. The new Sanofi-Aventis Group became the world’s 3rd largest pharmaceutical company. Aventis Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi-Aventis Group, changed its name to Sanofi Pasteur. Sanofi Pasteur is the vaccines division of Sanofi Group. It is the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines.
Prior to splitting its genetically engineered crop business from its vaccine business, Aventis was known primarily for the StarLink corn debacle (a type of GM corn grown for use in animal feed that contaminated the U.S. food supply in 2000). Bayer now sells Aventis’s Liberty Link crops, engineered to tolerate high doses of the company’s toxic herbicide called Liberty (glufosinate).7
Stauffer Seeds was a spin-off of Stauffer Chemical, formerly a division of Novartis.8 Stauffer Seeds and Prodigene conducted clinical trials on pigs using an edible vaccine for transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) expressed in corn.9
Prodigene was caught contaminating the food supply with its edible vaccine and the company went out of business, but not before it received a $6-million investment from the Governors Biotechnology Partnership, chaired by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. Vilsack, now the Obama Administration’s USDA Secretary, didn’t want any restrictions placed on experimental pharma crops. In reaction to suggestions that pharma crops should be kept away from food crops, Vilsack argued that ‘we should not overreact and hamstring this industry.’10
Prior to 1997, Monsanto (the world leader in GM crops) operated under three parts, the Ag Business (for agricultural products), the Chemicals Business, and the Pharmaceuticals Business, which is now Pharmacia, a subsidiary of Pfizer, the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world and the largest manufacturer of vaccines for food animals.11, 12
GlaxoSmithKline, while producing few products for food or agriculture, has been genetically engineering plants, animals and microorganisms for use in vaccines, pharmaceuticals and medical research.13

Bill Gates, Warren Buffet Supporting Propagation of Both Vaccines and GMOs

The most influential, and, of course, richest advocates for genetic engineering and vaccines are Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. They have business as well as philanthropic interests in these technologies and their Gates Foundation (Buffet has donated over $1.5 billion to the Foundation) allows them to mix business with philanthropy.
They – and the corporations they invite to join them – use the tax shelter of a non-profit organization to invest in for-profit enterprises. Gates & Buffet get tax write-offs for putting money in their foundation, but their foundation can give money (both as grants & investments) directly to for-profit corporations creating for-profit products.
This, obviously, creates huge conflict of interests.
For instance, Monsanto and other biotech companies have collaborated with the Gates Foundation via the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to promote the use of genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa. The Gates Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to AGRA, and in 2006 Robert Horsch was hired for the AGRA project. Horsch was a Monsanto executive for 25 years. In a nutshell, the project may be sold under the banner of altruism and ‘sustainability,’ but in reality it’s anything but. It’s just a multi-billion dollar enterprise to transform Africa into a GM-crop-friendly continent. The Foundation has also invested heavily in Monsanto stock, purchasing over $23 million worth in 2010.14
The Gates Foundation is also closely partnered with Big Pharma, to whom Bill Gates pledged $10 billion to distribute and administer multiple vaccines to children around the world. This, too, is billed as a humanitarian effort to save lives, but what children living in poverty in developing countries need most is healthy, plentiful food, clean water, better sanitation and improved living conditions. These are the keys to preventing the spread of infectious disease, and they appear to be wholly ignored by Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and non-profit organizations with financial ties to Big Pharma – at the children’s expense.
The Gates Foundation is even funding surveillance of anti-vaccine groups, and the following vaccine companies are supported by the Foundation through both investments and philanthropic projects:

Sanofi
GlaxoSmithKline
Merck
Pfizer
Novartis

Important Movements on the Horizon for Both GM Foods and Vaccines

It’s important to get all the facts before making your decision about vaccination; and to understand that in many state public health laws you still have the legal right to opt out of using a vaccine that you or your child do not want to receive. At present, all 50 states allow a medical exemption to vaccination (medical exemptions must be approved by an M.D. or D.O.); 48 states allow a religious exemption to vaccination; and 17 states allow a personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption to vaccination.
However, Washington state now requires parents to obtain the signature of a medical doctor or state-designated medical worker to obtain a philosophical exemption to vaccination. That is because non-medical vaccine exemptions have been restricted in Washington and Vermont and are under attack in California and New Jersey, while there is evidence that medical trade association lobbyists will be working to eliminate or severely restrict vaccine exemptions in Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Colorado and many other states.
Health liberty in America is being threatened by forced vaccination proponents employed by federal and state health departments, who are working with pharmaceutical companies and with Pharma-funded non-profit organizations to encourage government-enforced implementation of “no exceptions” one-size-fits-all vaccine laws. If you want to protect YOUR freedom to make informed, voluntary vaccination decisions in America, you need to take action today. (National vaccination policies are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level, and it is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights will have the greatest impact).
Signing up to be a user of NVIC’s free online Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you access to practical, useful information to help you communicate with your elected state legislators and become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. You will get real-time Action Alerts about what you can do if there are threats to vaccine exemptions in your state. With the click of a mouse or one touch on a Smartphone screen, you will be put in contact with YOUR elected representatives so you can let them know how you feel and what you want them to do. Plus, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have all the information you need to make sure your voice is heard.
I also recommend that you join NVIC on facebook, and if you can contribute monetarily, doing so at NVIC.org.
As for GM foods, you can help to pass the United States’ first GMO labeling law – Proposition 37 – that will require labeling of genetically modified (GM) foods and food ingredients – and ban the routine industry practice of labeling and marketing such foods as “natural.” Prop 37 is the best chance we have of defeating the corporate agri-giants, and of forcing food manufacturers to stop hiding dangerous ingredients in our food, without our knowledge.

By Dr. Mercola

Goats are being genetically engineered to become “pharm animals” that carry vaccines in their milk.
Current experiments being conducted by researchers from Texas A&M are geared toward producing an “edible” malaria vaccine, with the ultimate goal being that children drinking the milk will become vaccinated in the process.
While claiming that bioengineered animals could be “life-savers” for people in third-world countries, the researchers ignore the glaring issue that such biotechnology often produces unknown, and unintended, health consequences that prove tragic for individuals and the environment.

Vaccines in Your Milk?

Transmogrifying farm animals into “pharm” animals to act as living and breathing pharmaceutical factories is not new.
In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first drug produced by livestock that had been bioengineered to express a human gene.
In that case, the protein was extracted from the milk of genetically engineered (GE) goats.
In the latest instance, researchers introduced DNA coding for the malaria parasite into the goat genome linked to milk production.
The DNA is supposed to “switch on” only in the mammary gland when the goat produces milk.
As we’ve seen in the past with genetically modified plants, genetically engineered vaccine-producing animals might enter the food supply unexpectedly — exposing unintended recipients to the vaccine. Or the animals might escape and breed with others, passing these bioengineered genes on with unpredictable consequences. Even the technology itself is risky at best, because when animals are exposed to foreign DNA, literally anything can happen.
Take, for instance, milk from cows treated with a synthetic, genetically engineered growth hormone called rBGH. rBGH milk differs from natural milk nutritionally, pharmacologically, immunologically, and hormonally, and along with causing health problems in the cows, it is linked to cancer in humans. What does ingesting the DNA from the malaria parasite in your milk cause? No one knows.

Vaccine Makers See Dollar Signs When They See Third-World Countries

Malaria is caused by a parasite of the species Plasmodium, which is spread from person to person by infected mosquitoes. Every year, it results in about 1 million deaths, the majority of which are in third-world countries. We are certainly in need of a solution, and while it sounds good in theory that a child could be protected from malaria just by drinking a glass of milk, remember that vaccines often weaken and confuse children’s immune systems, which ultimately increases their susceptibility to the very infectious diseases vaccines are designed to prevent.
The most vulnerable of the world’s children are those in the poorest countries where death and disease is often a result of malnutrition, and where children are often battling some sort of infection 200 days out of the year. Vaccines can be devastating to these already immunosuppressed children, as well as to adults.
However, emerging vaccine markets like third-world countries will soon outgrow developed markets by hundreds of billions of dollars. Emerging markets are areas of the world that are beginning to show promise as a profitable venture for many products, including vaccines. And emerging markets – primarily in developing countries in Southeast and Central Asia, and Africa – have been on vaccine makers’ radar for quite some time.

Giving Immune-Compromised Children Vaccines May Create Illness, Not Cure It

One reason that vaccine makers are interested in these parts of the world is that that’s where most of the world’s deaths from major infectious diseases occur. The only problem has been that, until recently, making vaccines for undeveloped countries with no money to pay for them, was not exactly a profitable goal for vaccine makers.
Concerned that developed countries would have little or no resources for addressing serious infectious diseases if vaccine makers continued their pull-out, the World Health Organization and the G8 – the top developed countries in the world – responded with a plan for inducing vaccine companies to stay in the business.
That plan was called Advance Market Commitments (AMCs). Under AMCs, developed countries make legal, binding agreements to purchase vaccines that are needed in low-income countries. The purchase guarantees a bottom line for the manufacturers. In return, the manufacturers promise to sell those vaccines at reduced prices in the countries where they are most needed.
Unfortunately, legally binding, advance market commitments to purchase vaccines that are mostly needed in third world countries could backfire on developed countries that don’t need – or want – certain vaccines. Malaria is one of the top neglected diseases that world health leaders want to address with AMCs, so the GM vaccine-producing goat milk might already be on their radar.
The ability to resist diseases like malaria requires a strong immune system, and for that, you require good nutrition, clean drinking water, and sanitation. If we want to help people in other countries to lower their malaria rates, it would be wise to focus on these basics first. In order to eradicate infectious disease from a nation, you have to first address compromised immune systems. If you hit immune suppressed children with a potent, adjuvant-loaded vaccine, you’re far more likely to create new disease, not eradicate it.
It’s similar to the corporations seeking to plant genetically modified golden rice in the developing world to purportedly alleviate vitamin A deficiency. What people in the developing world need to receive ample dietary vitamin A are the basics like access to a diverse range of nutritious foods — including animal products like eggs, cheese and meat and vegetables such as dark leafy greens and sweet potatoes. This is the type of diet that is attained from biodiverse farming — the opposite of what will occur if golden rice is planted on a large scale. So in the end it appears the golden rice will do little to improve vitamin A levels in the poor — and may actually make vitamin A deficiency worse.

Fertility Problems, DNA Damage Among the Serious Health Problems Linked to GM Foods

The vaccine-producing GM goats are a double-edged sword because while no one knows for sure what consuming GM vaccine-containing milk will do to humans, there’s very convincing evidence that genetically modified foods spell nothing but trouble for your health.
In one review of genetically modified organisms (GMO) — an analysis of 19 animal studies — it was revealed that nearly 10 percent of blood, urine, organ and other parameters tested were significantly influenced by GMOs, with the liver and kidneys faring the worst.
In the only human feeding study ever published on genetically modified foods, seven volunteers ate Roundup-ready soybeans. These are soybeans that have herbicide-resistant genes inserted into them in order to survive being sprayed with otherwise deadly doses of Roundup herbicide. In three of the seven volunteers, the gene inserted into the soy transferred into the DNA of their intestinal bacteria, and continued to function long after they stopped eating the GM soy!
So, exposing children in third world countries to these potential risks needs to be carefully considered before a malaria vaccine is distributed in GM milk especially when there are other innovative ways of fighting malaria available. In addition, Jeffrey Smith, founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, has documented at least 65 serious health risks from GM products of all kinds. Among them:

Offspring of rats fed GM soy showed a five-fold increase in mortality, lower birth weights, and the inability to reproduce
Male mice fed GM soy had damaged young sperm cells
The embryo offspring of GM soy-fed mice had altered DNA functioning
Several US farmers reported sterility or fertility problems among pigs and cows fed on GM corn varieties
Investigators in India have documented fertility problems, abortions, premature births, and other serious health issues, including deaths, among buffaloes fed GM cottonseed products

Why We MUST Insist on Mandatory Labeling of GM Foods

Mandatory labeling may be the only way to stop the proliferation of GM foods in the US because while GM seeds are banned in several European countries, in the U.S., certain states are actually passing legislation that protects the use of GM seeds and allows for unabated expansion! At present, no less than 14 states have passed such legislation. Michigan’s Senate Bill 7771, if passed, would make that 15. The Michigan bill would prevent anti-GMO laws, and would remove “any authority local governments may have to adopt and enforce ordinances that prohibit or regulate the labeling, sale, storage, transportation, distribution, use, or planting of agricultural, vegetable, flower or forest tree seeds.”
While legislation like this sounds like crazy nonsense to most people, such bills are essentially bought and paid for through the millions of dollars Monsanto and other biotech companies spend lobbying the US government each year. In the first quarter of 2011 alone, Monsanto spent $1.4 million on lobbying the federal government — a drop from a year earlier, when they spent $2.5 million during the same quarter.
Their efforts of persuasion are also made infinitely easier by the fact that an ever growing list of former Monsanto employees are now in positions of power within the federal government.

Proof Positive that GMO Labeling WILL Change the Food Industry

Many don’t fully appreciate the strategy of seeking to have genetically engineered foods labeled in California. The belief is that large companies would refuse to have dual labeling; one for California and another for the rest of the country. It would be very expensive and a logistical nightmare. So rather than have two labels, they would simply not carry the product, especially if the new label would be the equivalent of a skull and crossbones. This is why we are so committed to this initiative as victory here will likely eliminate genetically engineered foods from the US.
Powerful confirmation of this belief occurred in early 2012 when both Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo Inc. chose to alter one of their soda ingredients as a result of California’s labeling requirements for carcinogens2:

“Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. are changing the way they make the caramel coloring used in their sodas as a result of a California law that mandates drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens bear a cancer warning label. The companies said the changes will be expanded nationally to streamline their manufacturing processes. They’ve already been made for drinks sold in California.”

This is a PERFECT example of the national impact a California GMO labeling mandate can, and no doubt WILL, have. While California is the only state requiring the label to state that the product contains the offending ingredient, these companies are switching their formula for the entire US market, rather than have two different labels. According to USA Today:

“A representative for Coca-Cola, Diana Garza Ciarlante, said the company directed its caramel suppliers to modify their manufacturing processes to reduce the levels of the chemical 4-methylimidazole, which can be formed during the cooking process and as a result may be found in trace amounts in many foods. “While we believe that there is no public health risk that justifies any such change, we did ask our caramel suppliers to take this step so that our products would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning,” Garza-Giarlante said in an email.”

Learn More about Genetically Modified (GM) Foods

Due to lack of labeling, many Americans are still unfamiliar with what GM foods are. We have a plan to change that, and I urge you to participate and to continue learning more about GM foods and helping your friends and family do the same.
To start, please print out and use the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, created by the Institute for Responsible Technology. Share it with your friends and family, and post it to your social networks. You can also download a free iPhone application, available in the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications.
Your BEST strategy, however, is to simply buy USDA 100% Organic products whenever possible, (as these do not permit GM ingredients) or buy whole fresh produce and meat from local farmers. The majority of the GMO’s you’re exposed to are via processed foods, so by cooking from scratch with whole foods, you can be sure you’re not inadvertently consuming something laced with GM ingredients. When you do purchase processed food, avoid products containing anything related to corn or soy that are not 100 percent organic, as any foods containing these two non-organic ingredients are virtually guaranteed to contain genetically engineered ingredients, as well as toxic herbicide residues.
To learn more about GM foods, I highly recommend the following films and lectures:

Hidden Dangers in Kid’s Meals
Your Milk on Drugs – Just Say No!
Everything You Have to Know About Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods

Many have long suspected that U.S. policy on genetically modified (GM) organisms was being influenced by the multinational corporations that profit from genetic engineering and the export-oriented agribusiness. However, recently released Wikileaks cables document just how close that relationship has become.
The U.S. Department of State has virtually become an agency for promoting the private interests of the Monsanto Corporation.
As European social movements pressure their governments for an ongoing moratorium on GM seeds and foods, Monsanto and other biotech corporations have been pushing to find new market footholds, using hybrids even in impoverished Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. They have been pursuing such goals in collaboration with USAID, the U.S. State Department and the Gates Foundation Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
According to Netline:

“The collusion of the Gates Foundation with Monsanto corporation is no accident, as high level officials leading AGRA are former Monsanto executives. The recent purchase by AGRA of $500,000 worth in Monsanto stocks was vivid proof of that close relationship. Despite many words by Gates officials since the inception of the AGRA agenda denying that GMO seeds would be used as part of AGRA, their close relationship with Monsanto has now been revealed to be a key element in their agronomic ‘new green revolution’ strategy.”

In the video above, you can also see Gates’ wrong-headed ideas about vaccines.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates was recently interviewed by CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta. Gates was attending the World Economic Forum to push his mission of eradicating polio by 2012. Gates, through his foundation, has pledged $10 billion to provide vaccinations to children around the world .
In the course of the interview, in regards to the vaccine-autism connection, Gates said:

“… [I]t’s an absolute lie that has killed thousands of kids. Because the mothers who heard that lie, many of them didn’t have their kids take either pertussis or measles vaccine, and their children are dead today. And so the people who go and engage in those anti-vaccine efforts — you know, they, they kill children. It’s a very sad thing, because these vaccines are important.”

How can someone so smart also be so confused about this issue? Unfortunately, that may actually be part of the problem.
Bill Gates may be one of the most destructive “do-gooders” on the planet because he is rich enough to get what he wants and he has a high opinion of his own intelligence. It is hard enough fighting Big Pharma, Big Government and Big Medicine on vaccines, but when another opponent is one of the wealthiest and most influential philanthropists in the world, it is even harder.
Fortunately, truth is more powerful than money. It is the only reason that the voices of parents and vaccine injured children continue to be heard above the relentless promotion of lies by the wealthy and powerful.