Archive for July, 2009
Codex Alimentarius: A Serious Threat to Your Health

Imagine a world where you need a doctor’s prescription (and thus, health insurance), to buy your every-day organic health supplements.
Imagine a world where some of your most-trusted vitamins and supplements are not even on the market!
If this sounds like a bad scene from Big Brother, think again. Our government may be advancing towards giving more and more power to the Codex Alimentarius trade commission, an organization created to limit and control the freedom to buy every day supplements, vitamins, minerals, and even organic foods.
What is Codex Alimentarius?
Codex Alimentarius is a “trade commission” created by the UN in attempt to control all aspects of how food and nutritional supplements are exchanged through buyer and consumer networks.

In Latin, “Codex Alimentarius” literally translates into “food rules.” And even though the UN claims that the goals of Codex Alimentarius are geared towards “protecting the health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations,” it is clear that this organization is more about control and multi-national profits, than protecting the average consumer.
It is important to understand that this organization is not a consumer protection agency, nor a human rights agency, nor a public health organization. This organization is a trade-based commission, whose goals are clearly profit-focused. In fact, the basis of the Codex Alimentarius poses a huge threat to our basic freedoms of choice in terms of health and well-being.
Where Does Codex Stand As Of Today?
Sadly, Codex may go into effect on a global scale, this coming December 31, 2009. Because this organization has been presented as a “consumer protection” agency, there has been very little opposition to it from the media and the public in general. The public is, by and large, oblivious to its effects and intentions.
What Are Probiotics?
Repeatedly demonstrated to aid gastrointestinal health in the human body, acidophilus and other probiotics are key elements of our overall health and well being. This is particularly true when we consider that many of our common-day chronic ailments begin in the digestive system. It is also true when we consider the sheer number of people that suffer from poor gastrointestinal health, a condition which lowers the overall level of good bacteria in the body.

Before we go into the multi-fold benefits of taking probiotics, let’s define what probiotics are. The Joint FAO/WHO Working Group defines probiotics as “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.”
In plain English, probiotics are a type of living bacteria that actually benefit your health when taken in the appropriate amounts. This friendly bacteria, located in the gastrointestinal tract, comes in a variety of forms. With more than 400 different bacteria living in the human gastrointestinal tract, the most common forms of intestinal probiotics are L. acidophilus and Bifidobacteria bifidum.
These bacteria act as balancing agents for non-friendly, pathogenic, gut-bacteria such as Candida or E. coli. When the “good-guys” are not present enough, a number of bacteria-related health problems such as digestive upset, headaches, sluggishness, irritability, cadidiasis (an overgrowth of the bacteria Candida albicans), and even anxiety can ensue.
