by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) – Last year there was an unprecedented increase in awareness in the United States about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), important victories in court, and key steps forward in educating larger groups of people about GMOs and how to stay away from them. With experts predicting more of an upsurge of consumer concern in the United States this year, could 2011 be the year that consumer rejection starts to shut the door on these untested, harmful Frankenfoods for good? Although no one really knows for sure, there are several encouraging signs that that time is coming, if not this year, then within a year or two.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

October 10th (10-10-10) is National Non-GMO Day and October is National Non-GMO Month. There is no better time to get educated about genetically modified foods, the dangers associated with them, and how to avoid them so we can create a movement to stamp GMOs out of our food supply and take back our right to real food. In fact, I feel so strongly about educating people about this topic that I am going to add “Just Say No to GMOs” as one of the many nutritional subjects I can be contacted to speak about (either by itself or in conjunction with my gluten-free or going against the grain talks) to both mainstream and health professional groups.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

Religiously avoiding foods that contain high-fructose corn syrup? You’ll also need to watch out for foods that contain corn sugar, a change in name that appears to be coming and means the same thing.

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The latest stop on my virtual book tour for Gluten Free Throughout the Year was an interview at GlutenFreeFitness.com, which was posted as a podcast on Sept. 8th. Host Erin Elberson who has similar nutrition philosophies as I do interviewed me and we had an engaging chat that covered a lot of territory. We discussed helpful-for-health information for people who have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity and even for people who don’t. If you’d like to hear the real scoop on gluten-free and grain-free diets and how you can personalize the info to design the best diet for you for improved health, listen to the podcast right now.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) When our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 covering our rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, I’m sure they could not foresee that the food that sustains us and is essential for those rights would be changed so drastically between then and now by greedy corporations focused on profit. I doubt they could have ever conceived of the idea that the real food they ate for nourishment would be manipulated in such horrendous, harmful, underhanded ways without the people’s knowledge that it puts our very right to Life, Health and the pursuit of Happiness at risk. Back then who could have ever imagined packaged fake foods made with refined flour, sugar and long lists of chemical ingredients that no one can pronounce, meat from animals pumped up with drugs and unnaturally raised on outrageous amounts of toxic corn, and corn and soy sprayed with harmful chemicals and genetically tampered with to withstand those toxic chemicals when everything else sprayed with the chemicals dies?

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by Melissa Diane Smith

People who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks a week have an 87 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer, a particularly deadly form of cancer, according to a 14-year study of 60,000 people just published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

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by Melissa Diane Smith

(Opinion) There are many positive signs that there is a growing movement of people trying to get healthy: More people are eating gluten free, more are buying organic foods, more are paying out of their own pockets for complimentary and alternative medical treatments, and more are growing their own food in their own gardens.

But amidst those encouraging trends, there are several key health and nutrition concepts that most people, including many who eat gluten free, are missing or have never even heard. Part of my mission for this site is to inform you about health information you don’t hear elsewhere. So, to provide food for thought for the new decade, here is my list of the top concepts people need to understand to protect their health in the next decade and beyond:

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The list of hazards associated with high-fructose corn syrup continues to grow. The refined liquid sweetener found in soft drinks, candy and countless foods in our food supply has been implicated in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Earlier this year, mercury, a metal toxic to human health, was found in close to half of tested samples of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and nearly one-third of tested foods with HFCS in its top ingredients. (See the Nutrition News & Notes story on that.) Now new research shows that when HFCS is heated, it forms hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), a chemical that can kill honey bees and is linked to DNA damage in humans.

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Just a week before we heard about more food recalls and the continuing obesity crisis, the documentary “Food, Inc.” opened in the United States, warning us of those hazards and more from our current industrialized food system. The movie is now showing in select cities across the country. Readers of this blog already are in the know about many problems in our commercial food supply, but director Robert Kenner wanted to make a film that brought the subject to people who haven’t thought about the food they are eating and what we all can do about it.

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Ready to take another step in eating for optimal health? Take the No GMO Challenge.

Five days ago, on April 22, Earth Day, co-sponsors Real Food Media and the Institute for Responsible Technology started a campaign urging consumers to take the No GMO Challenge to protect themselves from one of history’s greatest man-made health and environmental threats – genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It is a rolling challenge, meaning you can join at anytime. Begin by cleaning out your cupboard and make a 30-day commitment to eating as many non-GMO meals as possible. This challenge is particularly important for people who have switched to eating more corn after starting a gluten-free diet.

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