You've not got a cold or any similar infection but you're troubled by frequent sneezing/mucus problems like post-nasal drip or a runny nose?

So - you've not got a cold or any similar infection but you're troubled by frequent sneezing/mucus problems like post-nasal drip or a runny nose? - Well these problems can be caused by sensitivity to salt (which can have resulted from taking prescribed meds), and if that is the case you may like to try cutting down on salt and salty food. The problems can also be caused by eating sugary food, so you could try eating less of that. Whether your problems are salty or sugary, cutting down on processed foods is likely to improve matters. And you will feel so much better!

Why is adding salt to food more harmful than in former years?

Adding salt to food is more harmful than years ago because in our developed world, a greater proportion of people are now sensitive to salt than used to be the case. There is both a higher incidence of salt sensitivity and the salt sensitivity itself tends to be more severe. - One of the factors contributing to salt sensitivity is the fact that these days, in general, most children- even toddlers -eat a diet that is too high in salt. Salt is especially bad for children. High salt intake, such as from salty snacks like crisps and salted nuts and junk like Cheesestrings, is a major cause of child obesity. - See Children and Salt. And a taste for salt acquired in childhood is not very easy to 'unacquire'. So the habit of eating over-salted food literally feeds a growing number of related health problems including high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stroke, heart disease, depression, dementia and so many more.

 

But at least as important a causative factor in salt sensitivity as high salt intake in childhood is the ever-growing ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs are being prescribed more and more in the UK (and even more still in United States) and other industrialised countries. Most of the prescriptions are for drugs that cause sodium and water/fluid retention and salt sensitivity. I don't mean that they are prescribed with the intention of causing sodium and water retention, but problems with salt are the most common undesirable side-effects of the most frequently prescribed rugs. These include antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, steroids, birth control medications and many more.

 

When you couple the over-prescribing of these dangerous salt-sensitising drugs with the highly-salted processed food that is the norm for a majority of consumers these days, it is assuredly a recipe for disaster both on a personal scale and in the wider social context. - I suggest that you try to avoid prescription drugs as far as you safely can and cut down on salt and salty food as much as you reasonably can. You'll lose some excess weight and improve your health and you'll feel sooo much better!

Leave it out! - The salt, that is.

If you want to lose excess weight, the fastest, simplest, safest way is to leave out the salt when you are cooking, give up sprinkling salt on your meal and cut down on the ready meals/fast food/processed food/pizzas/crisps and other highly-salted products that you eat. Home cooking of fresh food allows you to control the amount of salt that goes into a dish - as well as being more nutritious anyway. - Here's some information about the amount of salt/sodium in foods.

Pringles and other stackable chips/crisps are not good for your health

Pringles and other stackable chips/crisps are not good for your health. They contain carbohydrates processed at high heat and this processing creates Acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, which you ingest when you eat these snacks. Read what Dr Mercola has to say about this. The more natural and less processed your food is, the better for your health.

Artificial transfats damage our sewers as well as our health!

Artificial transfats damage our sewers as well as our health! Read this excellent Guardian blog article.

Artificial transfats are such an insidious poison. They shouldn't be there in food, of course. They are not necessary for our bodies; they are damaging, of course, and the cumulative damage results in degenerative disease. This degeneration causes personal suffering and public expense in dealing with the avoidable illnesses that result. It's interesting to read in this article how as well as clogging up our blood vessels, these toxins also clog up our sewers and cause nuisance and expense there too.

Are you wondering why poisons are added to food products like biscuits, cakes, fast foods, processed meals, takeaways, etc? It's because transfats increase the shelf life of these products, and thereby add to the profits of the Food Industry. And the government (and, indeed previous administrations too) favours food company profits over public health. - It's the same with salt added to manufactured food, but that's another shameful story.

The Food Programme Radio 4: Transfats are poisonous. Why is the Food Industry still allowed to put them into our food?

The transfats to which I refer are the artificial transfats that are added to food products, mainly in order to increase their shelf-life. In other words, they increase the profits of the food manufacturers. Artificial transfats are not a natural constituent of any food whatsoever. The body does not have a natural way to metabolise them. It cannot use them as food, because they are not food. They are toxic to the body. Toxic is a synonym for poisonous. For most consumers it is next door to impossible to know whether some of the foods they buy contain any of these poisons or not, and if they do contain any of these poisons, how much? and how much harm will they do? They damage your body and your brain. They contribute to your risk of stroke, heart disease, memory problems, dementia and more.

On the Food Programme on Radio 4 this week "Sheila Dillon investigates the issue of trans-fats in our food, and asks whether a voluntary agreement by the food industry to eliminate them by the end of the year is enough to prevent the kind of health problems associated with a diet heavy in industrial cooking fats." - I can tell you the answer to that question right now: it isn't...)o: - No way! No! It is not!

If you listen to this programme on iPlayer you will hear Sheila Dillon ask pertinent questions and you will hear slithering responses just as oily and toxic as the transfat content the apologists seek to defend. And do not be fooled by the talk of small quantities and of small percentages of calories from these transfats. They are very harmful even in very small quantities. And the damage they do is cumulative. - Remember the old adage: poison comes in small packages!

If you eat shop-bought biscuits, cakes, bread, pizzas, margarine, vegetable shortening, ice-cream, puddings & pudding mixes, ready-made pies, some confectionery - this list is not exhaustive - then you will almost certainly have eaten artificial transfats. Some groups of people are more reliant on processed foods than others are, and some groups of people, e.g. people whose health is already compromised by degenerative disease, are more vulnerable to the harm that artificial transfats cause in the body.

Unfortunately, the groups most at risk from these transfats are of minor importance to UK legislators. Otherwise there would be a BAN on adding these poisons to our food. Adding these poisons to our food swells the profits of the Food Industry, i.e. big business. Food Manufacturers are the groups whose welfare is important to our legislators. Their welfare is paramount.

That processed foods so often contain artificial transfats is yet another reason why, as far as you can, you would do well to avoid processed food, and eat fresh food that you eat raw, or that you cook yourself.

Meniere's Disease? Vertigo? Tinnitus? Feeling of pressure in the ear due to fluid build-up? You can reduce these problems by cutting down on salt.

Meniere's Disease? Vertigo (a form of dizziness where your surroundings appear to spin)? Tinnitus (an abnormal ringing noise inside the ear)? Feeling of pressure or fulness in the ear due to fluid build-up? Fluctuating hearing loss? These health problems are all caused or exacerbated by fluid retention, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. So here's what to do:

Obviously try to give up sprinkling salt on your food. But also, as far as you can, eat fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these convenience foods are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions that are also related to fluid retention and salt sensitivity.

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo?

Do you suffer from Ménière's Disease or Vertigo? - If you seriously cut down on salt and food containing added salt you will notice a big improvement. This mainly entails eating fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions.

Seriously, why are we even considering more junk additives in processed food, instead of simply banning the salt?

Seriously, why is anyone even considering more junk additives in processed food, instead of simply banning the salt? See today's Sunday Telegraph article. - Do you really fancy a bit of dental plaque(!) mixed in with your ready-meal? your cornflakes? your slice of toast? - Of course you don't!

The Food Standards Agency should stop playing about, and so should the Dept of Health and Andrew Lansley. They should all get it made illegal to add salt to processed food and thereby do what they are purportedly paid for, i.e. protect the health of UK citizens against the self-serving interests of the Food Industry. - And while they're about it, ban the addition of transfats too! - Come on, Mr Lansley! - Show us what you're made of! - Prove that you are not influenced against such a ban because of a conflict of interest that favours food manufacturers.

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling?

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling? - It may well be, that like me, upping your vitamin D intake would bring about a great improvement.

Here is news of recent studies that have found that for older people, taking exercise and taking vitamin D supplements is associated with reduced risk of falls. This was certainly my own experience, coupled with much greater muscle strength that makes it easier to rise from a chair, and much more confident walking. If you decide to take vitamin D supplements, then be aware that Vitamin D3 is the more effective version of this vitamin supplement. You could be saving yourself from a fall and a consequent broken bone or two. - Well worth taking the tablets...(o:

Vitamin D is one of the vitamins that are soluble in fat, so the best way to take Vitamin D supplements is with or after a meal that contains some fat.

It's also vital to improve your dietary intake, of course. - Healthy, natural, unsalted food, raw or cooked from scratch, is more likely to reward you with a healthy body than feeding it processed, highly-salted, sugar-laden, chemical-drenched, nutrient-low, denatured junk, isn't it? - Take care of your body! It's the only one you've got. - Saving money by choosing to eat cheap, processed rubbish instead of real food, preferably organic, is the most costly economy measure you could take, because it could cost you your health.

Australians draw attention to the health benefits of lower salt intake and the need for mandatory reductions in salt content of manufactured foods

Australia's experts are pointing out that voluntary reductions are not having much effect because of the self-serving irresponsibility of the food companies. Read Telegraph article. It is certainly high time that salt content of processed food be limited by law.

Read about the politics of salt reduction.

Function of the Appendix

When I was at school I was taught that the appendix didn't really have a function these days - that it was just a vestigial organ. Maybe you were taught that too. - But there is another theory now: that the appendix provides a 'safe house' where healthy gut flora are stored as a reserve cache to repopulate the gut if it gets infected and diarrhoea empties it. - Isn't the body a marvellous, intricate wonder?

See the diagram and explanation on Wikipedia.

I urge you to safeguard the health of your amazing, complex body by eating good, nutritious, natural food instead of processed, adulterated, over-salted, sub-standard fodder and diet junk.

Food Inc.

If you eat food - and I guess you do - Food Inc. is one film you really should see. I've just been watching it and I reckon I'll watch it again 'cos there's a lot in it - a lot of stuff you won' t know if you've not seen it, 'cos the food industry likes to keep a lot of facts secret in case those facts put you off buying their products.

I can't remotely do justice to this brave film. Here is how Wikipedia's entry about it begins: "Food, Inc. is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner.^[2] The film examines corporate farming in the United States, concluding that agribusiness produces food that is unhealthy in a way that is abusive of animals and environmentally harmful."

Please watch this film! Please do what you can to avert the harm that the food industry is perpetrating on the health and happiness of consumers, workers, animals and the environment.

My grandfather lived into his nineties

My grandfather lived into his nineties, when he died in bed of pneumonia. He never went to a doctor or dentist in his life and he still had all his teeth when he died. Good food was his physician: three meals a day. He grew some vegetables and had a few raspberry and gooseberry bushes in the back garden, and he ate plenty of animal fat: none of this foolish modern practice of cutting off all visible fat from the meat on one's plate. My grandparents reached and passed their diamond wedding anniversary. Over 60 happy years together.

I believe that two of the major causes of ill-health today in the developed world are 1) the adverse side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs, which are wantonly over-prescribed, often in high dose, by a medical profession too influenced by drugs reps, too ill-informed about drug side-effects, and too little interested in the therapeutic possibilities of improved nutrition, and 2) the dire effects of processed foods, produced by a food industry intent on profits and to hell with the damage done to the physical, mental and emotional well-being of their customers.

Reduce Hypertension by Avoiding Salt and Salty Food:

You can reduce high blood pressure by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. Especially if you would prefer to avoid taking drugs, then I do urge you to cut down on salt/sodium and salty food. - And I don't just mean sprinkle less onto your meal or use less in cooking; I mean try to eat fresh food, instead of processed food, takeaways and ready meals, because these processed foodstuffs have usually had a lot of salt added to them by the manufacturers. If you feel you have to buy some processed food, then look carefully at the labels to choose a pack/tin with lower salt/sodium level.

For fuller information about this, see Sodium in foods

You want to get rid of the weight you gained from taking the contraceptive pill?

You want to get rid of the weight you gained from taking the contraceptive pill? - First you need to realise that although we usually think of contraceptives, correctly, as sex hormones, they are also steroids, and taking steroids often causes fluid retention/salt sensitivity/weight gain. You have gained weight because of developing some sensitivity to salt. You can reduce that weight gain, and prevent future weight gain, by avoiding salt and salty food. - That means finding out about the salt/sodium content of foods, looking at labels, etc and choosing the foods that contain less sodium. You really need to try to avoid processed food and instead cook fresh food from scratch, without adding salt to it. Processed food manufacturers add a lot of salt to food; that's why processed food is not usually healthy food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

Breakfast cereal manufacturers may be forced to stop making untrue claims about their products being healthy

As reported here in the Sunday Telegraph, breakfast cereal manufacturers may have to stop making untrue claims about their products being healthy or helping slimmers to lose weight. In fact, most breakfast cereals contain a very high proportion of salt and and this is harmful for most consumers, especially children. Salt is the constituent of processed food that contributes most heavily to obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a host of other illnesses and ill health in general.

There are a few breakfast cereals that do not contain added salt. These include porridge, Ready Brek, Shredded Wheat and Shreddies.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted from my website if you need my help. My help is free.

GlaxoSmithKline's OTC 'Slimming Pill', Alli, May Be Causing Liver Damage

The Telegraph reports that "the pill contains the drug orlistat which some users have claimed can bring on hepatitis and other liver abnormalities. Other reported side effects have been headaches, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, depression and fatigue."

You do not need to take risky'slimming' drugs to lose weight. The easiest, safest, fastest way to lose excess weight is to give up dieting and concentrate instead on avoiding salt and salty food. This entails eating plenty of real food, cooked from fresh, instead of processed food and ready meals, which contain a lot of added salt. Cutting down on salt/sodium causes the body to excrete excess water (fluid retention), which is the cause of excess weight.

People who are overweight/fat/obese are sensitive to salt, which for them can result in sodium and water retention and therefore, obviously, weight gain. This in turn can result in calcium deficiency, which causes fat retention. Reducing salt intake reduces both the fluid retention and the fat retention. - Reducing calories does not address the fluid retention problem at all and that is the explanation for the fact that diets don't work.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of fluid retention/obesity/salt sensitivity and especially of morbid obesity. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Millions more people could be put on statins to prevent heart attack experts said as research shows they are more effective than previously thought.

Statins cut risk of death even in healthy people, research finds
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"There have been calls for everyone over the age of 50 to be given drugs to lower the risk of a heart attack but this is controversial as many see it as needlessly medicalising healthy people.

Prof Roger Boyle, national director for heart disease and stroke, said the public was against a blanket approach to prescribe statins to everyone over 50 and so instead GPs will this year begin to assess the risk of a heart attack for all over 40s this year. He said the only constraint to the programme was how fast the assessments could be carried out and 'whether the public will accept the change from being a person to being a patient and taking medication long-term’.

“The research confirms the benefits of statins throughout the stages of heart disease and it is a powerful indicator of the safety of this kind of treatment,” he said."

I am, I STRESS, not a doctor and not medically qualified in any way. I do, however, have a brain and I use it. - To aim for everyone over the age of 50 to be taking statins - drugs with highly unpleasant side-effects for many people - every day for the rest of their lives is dangerous lunacy, calculated to benefit the drug companies and add to the power of the medical profession.

There is a drug-free and COST-FREE way to reduce high cholesterol levels and to reduce heart disease and heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure and a myriad other degenerative diseases, and this way has no unpleasant side-effects; it is completely safe. - But the advisers to the government and the members of the medical profession who, like me, know the facts about salt sensitivity/fluid retention/obesity, etc, but unlike me, do not have the courage/honesty to tell the truth about it, do not dare to to do what is necessary. - The Food Industry needs to have legal sanctions put on the amount of salt/sodium it adds to its pernicious processed food and ready meals, and the public needs to be told the truth. The aim should be, within a reasonable time-frame, to eliminate added salt completely from most processed food. The Medical Profession needs to have legal curbs put on its ever-growing reckless prescribing of the many drugs that cause salt sensitivity/fluid retention/obesity, etc. The lies/misinformation about the causes of obesity, etc need to be forsworn. They are the main cause of suffering and early death in this country (and in America and some other countries).

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

The food industry is knowingly overusing a chemical that can cause crippling disease or early death. - That chemical is SALT.

Industry Not Lowering Sodium in Processed Foods, Despite Public Health Concerns
a webpage of Center for Science in the Public Interest

Extract:

""The food industry is knowingly overusing a chemical that can cause crippling disease or early death," CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said. "Despite 30 years of unkept promises from food companies, nothing has changed. The average sodium content remains dangerously high. The next Administration can't sit by incuriously as chain restaurants and food manufacturers recklessly turn Americans' brains and hearts into ticking time bombs."

Health officials see lower-sodium diets as a major public health goal, because current levels promote high blood pressure, which, in turn increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. In 2004, the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes, and two colleagues estimated that cutting sodium in foods by 50 percent would save about 150,000 lives annually. The American Medical Association, American College of Cardiology, and many other health groups have urged that industry gradually achieve that 50-percent reduction over a ten-year period.

While some companies maintain that current levels are necessary for purposes of taste or preservation, CSPI found large brand-to-brand differences in numerous categories of foods. That indicates that some companies could easily lower sodium levels and still have perfectly marketable products. For instance: Arby's French fries have three times as much sodium as McDonald's fries. Bumblebee white albacore canned tuna has 70 percent more sodium than Crown Prince. And Kraft's Classic Caesar salad dressing has almost twice as much sodium as Annie's Natural version."

You better believe it! - Salt can cause you serious ill-health! - Study the labels on the processed food you buy! - Reduce your sodium intake!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, sleep better, improve your concentration and improve your health in many other ways - without drugs, hunger or expense - by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

and FAT RETENTION