This research raised eyebrows in the
United States, where belief in the safety
of glyphosate-based herbicides is a sort of
First Commandment for the true believers in biotechnology and modern pesticide chemistry. This French research,
thankfully, has led some U.S. scientists
and regulators to ask more probing questions about what is actually known about
glyphosate-based herbicides and human
health effects, and the answer turns out
to be very little.
This is because U.S. pesticide law allows pesticide manufacturers to not disclose the identity of so-called “inert”
ingredients. To this day and despite the
fact that over 100 million acres of cropland are treated every year with
glyphosate-based herbicides, independent scientists cannot obtain information
on exactly what is in these herbicides.
Lacking such information, scientists have
one hand tied behind their backs.
Type 2 diabetes that strike earlier in life, leaving more time for the insidious complications of diabetes to erode well-being and drive up health care costs.
Total health care costs attributed to obesity/overweight and their complications are
projected to double each decade to nearly $1 trillion in 2030, which would then account for 16 to 18 percent of total U.S. health care costs. The Organic Center’s report
found that organic food may help reverse these trends by:
4. Triggering or reinforcing a sense of satiety, or fullness, thereby reducing excessive caloric
intake at the end of satisfying meals.
5. Lessening or limiting the cellular and genetic damage done by reactive oxygen species
(so-called free radicals) and reducing the risk of diabetes and other diseases rooted in in-
The Rest of Life
As we grow and age, new challenges
must be confronted, such as keeping
caloric intake in balance with energy
needs, sustaining vascular system health,
and avoiding diabetes, cancer and other
degenerative diseases. It is no secret that
as a nation we are flunking these challenges and paying an enormous price as a
result.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) reports that the number of obese people (about 34 percent)
now outnumber those who are overweight (about 33 percent), and that the
rate of new diabetes cases nearly doubled
over the last decade, reaching 9.1 new
cases per 1,000 persons between 2005
and 2007.
Overweight and obesity are rising
fastest among children, setting the stage
for far more cases of Type 2 diabetes,
which used to be called “adult-onset diabetes.” Today though, two-thirds of
American teenagers have a least one of
the five conditions associated with the
metabolic syndrome. Overweight among
children is leading to many more cases of
