Health & Fitness

As reported by Organic Insider,¹ the GMO industry — which is funded, propped up and defended by the tech and chemical industries — is now seeking to replace animal products such as beef, poultry, dairy and fish with synthetic biology, cultured meat, precision fermentation, cellular-based and gene edited foods.

Companies involved in creating these kinds of fake foods even participated in this year’s Natural Products Expo West, which has historically been reserved for all-natural and organic companies. Alan Lewis, vice president of advocacy at Natural Grocers commented on the presence of food-tech companies at the 2022 Expo:²

“It seems that even with all the smarts and savvy in the natural products community, we have failed to understand that we are being targeted by a coordinated global campaign to force the adoption of synthetics in natural channels. The campaign is spawn of the notorious GMO lobby, now emboldened and backed by technology moguls.”

The Great Reset in Action

A food goal of The Great Reset was even declared during that Expo. In his keynote presentation, Nick McCoy of Whipstitch Capital stated that “The only way we are going to meet demand, as a planet, is through cultured meat.” It’s an outright lie, but one that works well for those pushing The Great Reset agenda. Key arguments for synthetic meats include:

• Sustainability — Raising livestock is unsustainable as it requires large amounts of land. Synthetic meats can be produced using a small land footprint, and it can be produced far faster, to keep up with growing food demands
• Combating climate change — It’s environmentally friendlier than raising livestock, which are a source of methane gas
• Animal welfare — It’s humane, as no animals are killed for human food

These arguments are all provably false, however, and nothing more than a flimsy veneer to cover the truth, which is that the shift to patented foods is all about creating population control through dependency.

The EAT Forum, cofounded by the Wellcome Trust, has developed what they call “The Planetary Health Diet,”³ designed to be applied to the global population. It entails cutting meat and dairy intake by up to 90%, and replacing it largely with foods made in laboratories, along with cereals and oil.

Their largest initiative is called FReSH, which aims to transform the food system by working with biotech and fake meat companies to replace whole foods with lab-created alternatives. Once tech giants have control of meat, dairy, cereals and oils, they will be the ones profiting from and controlling the food supply, and the private companies that control the food supply will ultimately also control countries and entire populations.

Biotech will eventually push farmers and ranchers out of the equation, thereby eliminating any hope of food security. So, the work being done in the name of sustainability and saving the planet is really all about shifting control over populations to private corporations.

Those corporations, in turn, are funded and/or owned by the same globalist cabal that is trying to “reset” everything else in society. And, just as all the rest of The Great Reset agenda, the planned changes to the food supply are to the detriment of the global population. It’ll cause lower levels of health, more chronic disease and, ultimately, lower life spans.

Synthetic Biology Is GMO Junk Food on Steroids

As noted by Michael Hansen, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist at Consumer Reports, meat and dairy alternatives are all really just junk food and GMOs on steroids. Nothing good can come from transitioning away from real animal foods to manmade alternatives:⁴

“Companies call these things ‘synthetic biology’ and ‘fermentation technology,’ but these foods are all just GMOs. They are using terms people do not understand, so that people will not realize these are GMO ingredients.

These are often highly processed foods, which are associated with increased calorie intake and weight gain, according to a study⁵ from the National Institute of Health.

And while these companies may be perceived as tech start-ups, the products they produce are designed to fit into an industrial food system, and society is clearly moving against this trend and toward a more agroecological-based food system.

Additionally, they are introducing novel, genetically-engineered proteins into the food supply that will have unknown potential impacts on the human microbiome and the environment, and these companies are self-affirming GRAS status with the FDA, a voluntary process that is incredibly problematic and falls very, very short of protecting the consumer.”

Cultured Meat Does Not Spare Lives of Animals

Cultured meat,⁶ or cell-based meat, is produced from animal tissue cells that are then grown into larger slabs. One of its main selling points is that you can eat your beef without harming an animal.

What the PR leaves out, however, is that a key ingredient to grow the cells is fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is made from the blood of cow fetuses. FBS is used because it’s a universal growth medium (meaning any cell can grow in it, whereas other mediums are cell-specific) and contains growth factors that prevent cell death. In 2017, Slate magazine detailed the gruesome process of FBS extraction:⁷

“If a cow coming for slaughter happens to be pregnant, the cow is slaughtered and bled, and then the fetus is removed from its mother and brought into a blood collection room.

The fetus, which remains alive during the following process to ensure blood quality, has a needle inserted into its heart. Its blood is then drained until the fetus dies, a death that usually takes about five minutes. This blood is then refined, and the resulting extract is FBS.”

This is false advertising at its finest. Eating cultured meat means you’re not merely eating an animal that was killed at the end of its life, you’re eating food made from an animal that was sacrificed before it was even born. That’s a pretty bizarre way to promote animal welfare, if you ask me.

The reality is they need both cows and calf fetuses to make cultured beef. According to Christiana Musk, founder of Flourish*ink, cultured meat is “meat without slaughter."⁸ But clearly, that is a lie, seeing how it’s meat involving the slaughter of baby calves.

Just because you’re not eating the meat from that calf does not mean it didn’t die in order for you to eat meat. What’s worse, the meat from that calf was thrown away and its life sacrificed just to drain it of its blood, which strikes me as far more barbaric and inhumane than slaughtering and eating a full-grown cow.

Aside from general ethics considerations, cultured beef does not meet vegetarian requirements,⁹ and one could raise religious objections as well. Jews and Christians, for example, are prohibited — Biblically speaking — from consuming the blood of any animal, and in cultured meat, blood is a key ingredient.

Beyond Meat Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Bogus Claims

At present, Singapore is the only country that has approved cultured meat for commercial sale but, so far, it’s a losing venture. As reported by the Daily Mail,¹⁰ FSB sells for $1,000 per liter, so cultured meat would have to sell at $200,000 per pound to break even.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, another type of beef alternative that doesn’t cost a fortune to make has taken the market by storm, namely plant-based meat substitutes such as Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat. I’ve previously exposed the heavy processing and questionable ingredients that go into these products.

Beyond Meat — the primary ingredients¹¹ of which include pea protein, canola oil and rice protein — is now facing a class action lawsuit that alleges the company has been misrepresenting the protein content and/or quality, and the overall nutritional benefit, of nine different products. As reported by ClassAction.org:¹²

“According to the proposed class action, a number of claims made by the company concerning both protein and nutritional benefits are ‘false and misleading.’

Specifically, the 46-page complaint out of Illinois alleges that the plant-based meat substitute company ‘miscalculates and overstates’ its products’ protein content and protein quality.

The suit also alleges Beyond Meat misleads consumers into believing that its products provide equivalent nutritional benefits to those afforded by traditional meat-based foods ...

The case claims that industry-standard testing done by the six plaintiffs revealed that many Beyond Meat items contained less protein than indicated on their respective product labels ... Even worse, the suit says, the daily value percentage of protein in each of the items is ‘a small fraction’ of what Beyond Meat claims ...

‘For example, Defendant’s Beyond Beef Plant-Based Ground 16oz Patties, which is labeled as ‘20G Per Serving’ and ‘40% DV’ for protein, actually contains 19G Per Serving by nitrogen testing, and 7% DV for protein. This represents an underfill of 5% for protein content and an underfill of 33% for %DV for protein.’”

Beware Unhealthy Fats

Aside from the fact that you don’t get the amount of protein you think you’re getting from Beyond Meat, a far greater concern has to do with the fats it contains — canola oil. There is no animal fat in these plant-based meat substitutes. Instead, you’re getting industrial seed oil, which is the worst fat possible.

High amounts can cause severe problems, as it acts as a metabolic poison that stays put in your cells for up to seven years. I’m convinced excessive LA in the modern diet is a key contributor to all chronic diseases.

To be clear, LA is the one fat you absolutely want to minimize in your diet. Anything above 10 grams a day is likely to cause ill health. To learn more about the harmful mechanisms of LA, see “How Linoleic Acid Wrecks Your Health.” In my view, replacing real animal foods with fake substitutes, regardless of how they’re made, is one of the worst ideas in human history.

Simply put, there are no benefits — not for the environment, human nutrition or animal welfare — only hazards and false claims. So, if you value your health, you would do well to stay clear of animal food substitutes, be they beef, poultry, fish or dairy substitutes.

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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer affecting children. The T-ALL form of leukemia that emerges from early T lineage cells has a poorer prognosis than B-lineage ALL. The prognosis for relapsed T-ALL is very poor and new therapies are sorely needed. Medical researchers have discovered a new combination of drugs that is effective against T-ALL.

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This article was previously published November 11, 2011, and has been updated with new information.

The science is loud and clear: The correct balance of fatty acids is essential if you want to be the healthiest you can be. That means that maintaining a healthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is important for optimal health. Ideally, you want to maintain a 4-to-1 ratio, or less.

However, studies show that most people are consuming as much as a 12-to-1 ratio, which can be attributed to the consumption of too much α-linolenic acid (ALA), the primary sources of which are vegetable oils such as soybean and canola.¹

It’s unfortunate that most people have been fooled by a decades-long fad promoting vegetable oils as the key to good eating and a long life when, in fact, it is a road to ill health and chronic disease. History shows that our lopsided consumption of ALAs began in the early 1900s, when people were discouraged from eating natural animal fats such as butter and lard.²

We now know that refined vegetable oils are among the worst foods to consume, and that we need to limit ALA consumption. As a group, when consumed in the wrong ratios, these fats tend to stimulate inflammatory processes in your body, rather than inhibit them. There are actually two problems related to how fats are being consumed in the U.S. today:

1. Most people are consuming far too many omega-6 fats compared to omega-3 fats. As mentioned, the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fats is 4-to-1, but this is nearly impossible to achieve if you’re regularly eating processed foods or restaurant fare, as these are loaded with omega-6 from industrial vegetable oils.
2. Americans are also consuming far too many polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). While both omega-3 and omega-6 fats are PUFAs and essential to your health, when omega-6 is consumed in excess, it becomes problematic. In fact, too many PUFAs contribute to chronic inflammation over the long term.

It is easy to get confused when reading about the different types of fats — there are saturated fats and unsaturated fats, omega-3s and omega-6s, PUFAs, long-chain and short-chain fats, and the list goes on.

In order to help clear up the confusion, this article aims to provide you with a "primer" on fatty acids to increase your understanding of the fundamental differences between the types of fats and how your body uses them. So let's start by taking a look at the overall category called "fats"—what they're made of and what they do for you. And then we'll take a closer look at PUFAs and omega-3s.

Fats for Dummies

Fats are one member of a group of water-insoluble substances called "lipids." Lipids³ are important to you because they are the primary components of your cell membranes. Other members of the lipid group include sterols, phospholipids, triglycerides and waxes.

Fats both in foods and in your body are simply storage units composed of fatty acids. A fat is distinguished by the specific combination of fatty acids making it up. Fatty acids have three basic purposes in your body:⁴

1. Providing energy
2. Providing the building blocks for cell membranes and metabolism
3. Acting as raw materials that can be converted to other substances that perform special duties in your body such as hormones

The properties of fats and fatty acids depend on their degree of hydrogen saturation and the length of their molecules, or "chain length." Chemically, a fatty acid is a chain of carbon atoms with pairs of hydrogen atoms attached, with an "acid group" attached to one end of the molecule.

There are four basic types of fatty acids, based on how many of their carbon bonds are paired with hydrogen:⁵

Vegetable oils and animal fats are typically composed of a mixture of these different fatty acid types. For example, olive oil is mostly monounsaturated fat with a small amount of polyunsaturated fat.⁶ Lard is primarily 39.2% saturated fat and 45.1% monounsaturated fat, but contains some polyunsaturated fat as well.⁷

Most vegetable oils are high in PUFAs, whereas most animal fats are high in saturated and monounsaturated fats (except for palm, coconut and olive oils). Saturated and monounsaturated fats are more easily used by your body than polyunsaturated fats.

Fats vary in the length of their carbon chains, leading to another classification scheme based on their number of carbon atoms:⁸

• Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) — Two to four carbon atoms
• Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) — Six to 10 carbon atoms
• Long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) — Twelve to 26 carbon atoms
• Very-long-chain fatty acids⁹ (VLCFAs) — Twenty-six to 30 carbon atoms

A fatty acid's chain length and saturation control its melting point. As chain length increases, melting point increases. Likewise, fats that are solid at room temperature (butter, coconut oil) have longer chain lengths than fats that are liquid at room temperature (fish oil, olive oil). With chain lengths being equal, unsaturated fats have lower melting points than saturated fats.

The Chemical Instability of Polyunsaturated Fats (PUFAs)

Because your tissues are made up mostly of saturated and monounsaturated fats, your body requires more of them than polyunsaturated fats (which is true of all mammals). The main dietary PUFAs are omega-3 and omega-6 fats. Although your body does need these, it needs them in relatively small quantities.

One of the problems with PUFAs is that they are very chemically unstable, and highly susceptible to being altered and denatured by what's around them. Think about what happens to the oils in your pantry — they are susceptible to going rancid as a result of oxidation. In your body, PUFAs undergo a similar process when exposed to the toxic byproducts of proteins and sugars — especially fructose.

This is why most fish oil supplements have such a short shelf life, and many are already oxidized before they hit the bottle. Consuming oxidized fats can do your body more harm than good.

When you eat too many PUFAs, they are increasingly incorporated into your cell membranes. Because these fats are unstable, your cells become fragile and prone to oxidation, which leads to all sorts of health problems, such as atherosclerosis. Now let's take a look at the most common PUFAs in your diet—the omega fats.

The Omega Fats

The end of the fatty acid chain, opposite the acid end, is the "omega end." The location of the first double bond from the omega end dictates whether a fatty acid is an omega-3, omega-6, omega-9 (oleic acid), or another member of the "omega family." Both omega-3s and omega-6s come in both short-and long-chain varieties.

Fats: Understanding the Essentials

"Essential fatty acids" (EFAs) is a term referring to the PUFAs your body needs but cannot produce (or convert from other fats), so they must be obtained from your diet.

Traditionally, only two fats were considered "essential" — ALA (an omega-3 fat) and LA (an omega-6 fat). However, we now know it's the long-chain derivatives — arachidonic acid, DHA, and EPA — that your body needs the most. Although you have the enzymes to convert LA into these longer-chain fats (ALA, DHA and EPA), the conversion isn't efficient enough for optimal brain growth and development.

This has led to a recent rethinking of what fats to consider "essential" and recommendations for adding more long-chain fats to your diet, to better meet these biological demands.

DHA and EPA: The ‘Anti-Inflammatory Fats’

Scientific studies have uncovered a number of important health benefits from omega-3 fats, and it's looking more like it's DHA and EPA that are responsible for those benefits, rather than ALA. Science suggests that omega-3s offer the following benefits to your health:¹⁴

Healthier, stronger bones	Protecting your tissues and organs from inflammation
Improved mood regulation	Brain and eye development in babies
Reduced risk of Parkinson's disease	Reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease
Reduced risk of death from ALL causes	Relief from dry eye syndrome
Prevention of vascular complications from Type 2 diabetes	Peripheral artery disease
Gallstones	Preventing postpartum depression
Reducing symptoms of lupus and other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis	Preventing premature death
Multiple sclerosis	Combating cancer

One reason omega-3s are so good for you is their anti-inflammatory properties, especially the omega-3s from animal sources. In the case of DHA, your tissues use this fatty acid it to synthesize compounds called "resolvins," which help to reduce inflammation. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation:¹⁵

"Sufficient DHA allows the immune system to mount a robust inflammatory response against invading pathogens or damaged tissues and to bring the response quickly to an end once the task has been accomplished.

Researchers are increasingly discovering that most degenerative diseases involve an element of chronic, low-level inflammation, and the inability to "turn off" important inflammatory processes once they are no longer needed could be part of the problem. DHA deficiency may therefore be at the root of widespread declines in cognitive function, increases in mental disorders and epidemic levels of degenerative disease."

A study in the journal Pediatrics¹⁶ even showed that supplementing a mother's DHA during pregnancy and lactation improves her child's IQ at 4 years of age. EPA, which accumulates in fish, is a precursor to DHA.

Just like DHA, EPA also helps to control inflammation, but this time by interfering with arachidonic acid metabolism. Arachidonic acid is the precursor to PGE2 (a prostaglandin), which is a major initiator of inflammation. You can see how DHA and EPA would work together to naturally reduce inflammation and improve inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.

In rheumatoid arthritis, EPA/DHA supplementation has been shown to reduce joint stiffness and soreness and improve flexibility. And for asthma, a study¹⁷ involving fish oil supplementation for asthmatic children (along with improved diet) resulted in better airway function and reduced need for asthma medications, without side effects.

The most profound benefits of EPA may lie in its implications for people at high risk for coronary artery disease. But science has shown that EPA/DHA supplementation can benefit people with other conditions as well, such as:

• EPA/DHA supplementation has helped people with ulcerative colitis.¹⁸
• Several studies have shown that people with schizophrenia often have low levels of the particular EFAs necessary for normal nerve cell membrane metabolism. Early results from a few trials suggest EPA can have a positive effect on the mental status of schizophrenics.¹⁹
• Epidemiological evidence suggests that populations consuming marine diets rich in EPA have a low incidence of cancer.²⁰ Experimental studies, both in vitro and in vivo, further support EPA’s anticancer activity.

EPA and Your Heart

Even though the medical establishment for decades has advised you to consume vegetable oils (omega-6 PUFAs) to prevent heart disease, human trials have conclusively demonstrated that vegetable oils do not decrease atherosclerosis or decrease your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

There is a widespread medical myth that atherosclerotic plaque is caused by too much LDL and cholesterol in your blood. Yet, this is not what the research shows! Instead, science tells us that the mechanism driving atherosclerosis is actually the oxidation of PUFAs in your LDL membrane. You may recall that excess PUFAs lead to fragile cell membranes that can easily be damaged by oxidation.

Furthermore, high LDL appears to be a sign of cholesterol sulfate deficiency — it's your body's way of trying to maintain the correct balance by taking damaged LDL and turning it into plaque, within which the blood platelets produce the cholesterol sulfate your heart and brain needs for optimal function.

What this also means is that when you artificially lower your cholesterol with a statin drug, which effectively reduces that plaque but doesn't address the root problem, your body is not able to compensate any longer, and as a result of lack of cholesterol sulfate you may end up with heart failure. So that I can be perfectly clear about this, I'll repeat it again:

Atherosclerosis is NOT caused by the amount of cholesterol carried by your LDL, but by oxidative damage to weak cell membranes, resulting from a diet too high in PUFAs and too low in saturated fats.

It is no wonder, then, that trials attempting to prevent heart disease with diets rich in polyunsaturated vegetable oils have failed so miserably! Even the US FDA, which denies most nutritional claims, acknowledges the following cardiovascular benefits of dietary animal-based omega-3 fats.

And the opposite can be said of diets rich in EPA, which have been scientifically shown to improve heart health by:^21,22

• Lowering lipid and triglyceride levels in your blood
• Decreasing blood viscosity
• Reducing platelet aggregation, thereby reducing the likelihood of a clot
• Reducing your chances of heart attack

Antiarrhythmic — Counteracting or preventing cardiac arrhythmia	Antithrombotic — Tending to prevent thrombosis (a blood clot within a blood vessel)
Antiatherosclerotic — Preventing fatty deposits and fibrosis of the inner layer of your arteries from forming	Anti-inflammatory — Counteracting inflammation (heat, pain, swelling, etc.)
Improving endothelial function — A major factor in promoting the growth of new blood vessels	Antihypertensive — Lowering blood pressure
Lowering triglyceride concentrations

Marine oils are an excellent source of EPA-and DHA-rich omega-3 fats. Many cultures around the world that subsist on traditional diets have very low to nonexistent cardiovascular disease. Many of these cultures have a high intake of marine oils (e.g., the Inuit) — but some do not. However, what ALL of these groups do have in common is the near absence of refined foods.

If you are eating standard American fare, simply taking an omega-3 supplement may not be enough because it needs to be implemented as part of a total nutrition plan which should include eliminating refined/processed food and excess sugar and grains, and a return to whole foods, with an emphasis on fresh organic vegetables and meats. Basically, it's a return to what our ancestors ate. So, how do you know if you're getting enough omega-3 fats?

Signs and Symptoms of Fatty Acid Deficiency

To get your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio closer to ideal, simply cut back on all vegetable oils (this includes processed foods, which are loaded with vegetable oils), and begin consuming sources of high-quality omega-3 fats daily. My favorite omega-3 supplement is krill oil, which I'll discuss in a moment. Common signs and symptoms that your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio may be out of balance include:²³

Dry, flaky skin, alligator skin, or "chicken skin" on backs of arms	Dandruff or dry hair	Brittle or soft nails
Cracked skin on heals or fingertips	Lowered immunity, frequent infections	Dry eyes
Poor wound healing	Frequent urination or excessive thirst	Fatigue
Allergies	Poor attention span, hyperactivity, or irritability	Problems learning

Certain clusters of symptoms may indicate other fatty acid deficiencies. For example, if you have a deficiency in arachidonic acid, the following symptoms are typical:

• Dry, itchy, scaly skin
• Dandruff and/or hair loss
• Reproductive difficulties
• Gastrointestinal disturbances
• Food intolerances

Deficiencies in either arachidonic acid or DHA²⁴ can result in poor growth, poor immune function and inflammation. DHA deficiency has been linked to ADHD, depression and Alzheimer's disease, which is understandable as DHA is so critical to your neurological function. If your deficiency is in DHA, you are more likely to experience these symptoms:

• Numbness or tingling
• Weakness or pain
• Psychological disturbances
• Poor cognition
• Poor visual acuity

Plant-Based Versus Animal-based Omega-3 Fats

There are many who argue you can get all of the omega-3 fats you need from plant sources, but I disagree. Plant-based omega-3 sources include flax, hemp, and chia seeds, which are all high in ALA. Your body can convert ALA into EPA and DHA — but only in small quantities, as I discussed earlier. While you certainly should consume these plant-based fats, you cannot rely on them exclusively to meet all your body's omega-3 fat requirements.

Your body needs all three omega-3 fats (ALA, EPA and DHA), and for this, you need both plant AND animal sources. You should avoid taking DHA-only products, for the same reason.

For optimal health, then, it boils down to the need for balance among these various essential fats, and you can achieve this balance by eating a diet that incorporates a wide variety of whole foods from both plant and animal sources, and a good omega-3 supplement.

My No. 1 Choice for Omega-3 Supplementation

In a perfect world, you'd get all of the animal-based omega-3s you needed from eating fish and seafood. But the sad reality is that industrial pollution has contaminated most of the world's fish and seafood with a variety of dangerous toxins like mercury and PCBs. The one exception is krill oil, my favorite omega-3 fat supplement. Krill does not generally have this contamination. I believe it's the best omega-3 source for the following four reasons:

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Mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine for decades. But it wasn't until 1970 that mushrooms were officially distinguished from flora and recognized in their own biological kingdom.¹

Researchers have discovered fungal threads that exist below the surface of the soil play a key role in promoting healthy foods.² Those threads are called mycelium and are part of the reproductive stage of fungi. Growing mycelium can break down lignin found in plant material, improve the soil or warn plants of an imminent attack. In fact, mycelium has been described as “the internet of the forest, the wood wide web, the archetype of community.”³

Those who study fungi believe they are closer in nature to animals than they are to plants. The amino acid that has linked healthy soil to healthy people is ergothioneine, found commonly in mushrooms. According to the US Department of Agriculture,⁴ on average, people eat about 3 pounds of fresh mushrooms every year.

Mushrooms are rich in the antioxidants ergothioneine and glutathione. One paper in the journal Molecules wrote of the amino acid ergothioneine in the human body,⁵ "ET [ergothioneine] is concentrated in mitochondria, suggesting a specific role in protecting mitochondrial components, such as DNA, from oxidative damage."

Mushrooms also contain usually high levels of glutathione,⁶ important for the detoxification of heavy metals and other contaminants⁷ and also called “the master antioxidant.”⁸ One researcher from Penn State Center for Plant and Mushroom Products for Health said:⁹

"What we found is that, without a doubt, mushrooms are the highest dietary source of these two antioxidants [ergothioneine and glutathione] taken together, and that some types are really packed with both of them.”

Researchers have been studying the relationship between mushroom consumption and a variety of health conditions. Robert Beelman, from Penn State Center for Plant and Mushroom Products for Health, points out that in countries where people have more ergothioneine in their diet, researchers have found:¹⁰

“... lower incidences of neurodegenerative diseases, while people in countries like the United States, which has low amounts of ergothioneine in the diet, have a higher probability of diseases like Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's.”

Researchers are unsure if this is correlation or causation, but the strength of the evidence is enough to suggest that ergothioneine is a necessary part of optimizing health and wellness.

Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People

Legend has it that the founder of the Rodale Institute and promoter of organic farming once wrote “Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People” on a chalkboard. Although the concept is logical, scientists had not made an evidentiary connection until recently.

Civil Eats¹¹ spoke with David Montgomery, a geomorphologist from the University of Washington, and his wife Anne Biklé, who together wrote an upcoming book “What Your Food Ate.” The book delves into the science behind soil health and how it impacts the health of crops, livestock and, ultimately, the end consumer, humans.

Montgomery believes that “In some ways, science has been catching up to the idea,”¹² that Rodale proposed over 50 years ago. In their research for the book, Montgomery and Biklé studied the products of nine matched pairs of regenerative and conventional farms.

Their results were published in Environmental Science, January 27, 2022.¹³ The team measured eight pairs of regenerative and conventional farms in eight states in the U.S. Each regenerative farm was paired with a neighboring conventional farm that planted the same crop variety. The regenerative farms combined no-till, diverse rotations and cover crops.

As you might expect, they found produce from regenerative farms was far healthier, testing for higher levels of certain minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals. A comparison of the level of unsaturated fatty acid in beef and pork raised on a regenerative farm against a conventional farm revealed the meat from a regenerative farm had higher levels of omega-3 fats and a lower ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fat. They concluded:¹⁴

“Despite small sample sizes, all three crop comparisons show differences in micronutrient and phytochemical concentrations that suggest soil health is an under appreciated influence on nutrient density, particularly for phytochemicals not conventionally considered nutrients but nonetheless relevant to chronic disease prevention.

Likewise, regenerative grazing practices produced meat with a better fatty acid profile than conventional and regional health-promoting brands. Together these comparisons offer preliminary support for the conclusion that regenerative soil-building farming practices can enhance the nutritional profile of conventionally grown plant and animal foods.”

Could Fungi Be the Connection?

Although not everyone eats mushrooms, everyone has ergothioneine in their body.¹⁵ Importantly, mushrooms are the leading dietary source of ergothioneine. Beelman began asking the question, that if not everyone eats mushrooms, then how is everyone getting ergothioneine in their body?¹⁶

Ergothioneine is only synthesized by some bacteria and fungi. Scientists have found it in nearly all human tissue and body fluids and recognize it as a powerful antioxidant. Low levels have also been measured in some diseases, which has suggested that a deficiency may trigger some disease processes.¹⁷

Beelman and his colleagues hypothesized that ergothioneine from mushrooms was being absorbed into crops through the underground association with mycelium. Ergothioneine can be found in the fruiting body of the fungi, the mushroom, and along the mycelium.

When animals eat plants rich in ergothioneine, it gets into the meat. Beelman hypothesized that this may be how the amino acid is found throughout the human population.

They collaborated with the Rodale Institute to measure levels of ergothioneine in oats and separated the crops based on how intensely the soil had been tilled.¹⁸ Conventional farmers used tillage to help prepare the soil for planting and to kill weeds. The drawback is that it negatively affects soil health in several ways:¹⁹

• Tilling breaks up soil structure that provides a framework and prevents runoff.
• Aerating the soil increases biological activity and rapid decomposition of organic matter, which releases CO2.
• Tilling destroys the habitat of the microorganisms living within the top two inches of the soil surface, which play an important role in decomposing organic matter and nutrient cycling. This includes reducing fungal biomass.
• Tilling makes the soil more vulnerable to compaction, which in turn reduces water, air and space for plant roots and soil organisms.

The results were not surprising. The data showed oats grown on conventionally tilled land had 33% less ergothioneine than no-till grown grain. The team moved on to do a similar analysis of how tillage may affect ergothioneine levels in soybean, corn and oats. The results revealed that concentrations of ergothioneine rose as the intensity of tilling the land decreased.

In speaking to Civil Eats, Beelman believes that this demonstrates a cohesive link from soil to crop to human health. “When you till the soil, you reduce the amount of ergothioneine that gets into the crop. Nobody had actually shown a specific connection. I think this does,” he said.²⁰

Regenerative Practices Protect Soil and Prevent Erosion

Regenerative farming practices go far beyond avoiding sewage sludge, toxic pesticides and GMO seeds. Instead, regenerative agriculture and livestock management is the next stage of organic farming and helps regenerate environmental health by paying attention to soil and animal health, the climate and rural livelihood.

Steering committee member for Regeneration International, Vandana Shiva, puts it this way: "Regenerative agriculture provides answers to the soil crisis, the food crisis, the climate crisis, and the crisis of democracy."²¹

Regeneration International was founded in 2014 and announced at a press conference during a massive climate march in New York City. The goal of the organization is to fundamentally change the conversation about the climate crisis and incorporate regenerative and organic food, farming and land use into the dialogue.

Ultimately, regenerative agriculture looks at land management as a network that should nourish people and the environment. The practices can differ from region to region, but the foundational principles are built on a dynamic system that is meant to restore the earth, address inequity and leave the water, land and climate in better shape for the next generations.

Regenerative farming practices focus on improving soil health, sequestering carbon using minimal or no-till practices and planting cover crops.²² Each of these strategies helps to improve the land yield and the nutrition of the crops grown. Cover crops²³ are planted to help protect the soil from erosion and inhibit weed growth. This also reduces the need for herbicides.

Cover crops primarily get planted in fields that would otherwise not have a cash crop planted. They increase biodiversity and can act as a living mulch to reduce weed growth. Other practices include crop rotation and diversity, which is a far cry from the monoculture crop planting practice by conventional farmers.

Crop rotation helps replenish the nutrients removed from the soil when you continually replant the same crop. Regenerative farms may also incorporate livestock,²⁴ allowing them to graze on cropland when cover crops are growing. This varies the animal's diet, increases their nutrient intake and is good for the topsoil.

Top Reasons to Support Regenerative Farming Practices

As Beelman and his colleagues have shown, the health of the soil in which your food is grown is directly related to your health. This begs the question of how the burgeoning warehouse farming market could possibly meet your nutritional needs. Some manufacturers are producing prefabricated buildings, specific LED plant lights and 20-foot towers to grow fruits and vegetables.²⁵

The production uses sensors to optimize water, light and temperature, and the producers claim they do not use or need synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides or GMO seeds. Some claim the yields are far higher than on traditional farms. And while Successful Farming²⁶ believes the one inefficient component is electricity use, as Beelman has demonstrated, growing crops is not only about the size of the plant that shows up above ground.

In 2014 Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned that at the current rate of topsoil degradation, all the world's topsoil will be gone in less than 60 years.²⁷ At that point, growing food will become next to impossible.

The good news is there are many reasons to choose to support regenerative farmers and the crops they produce, or to choose regenerative practices in your own garden at home. The practice helps rebuild the topsoil, which is essential for growing crops.

Regenerative farming practices also help protect water sources and reduce agricultural water demand. Conventional agricultural practices promote water waste using flood irrigation and the destruction of soil quality. As a result, one-third of the largest groundwater aquifers are already nearing depletion,^28,29 as we're extracting water at a far faster pace than the aquifers can refill.

Montgomery and Biklé showed in their small sample study that animals grazing on regenerative farms produced meat with a lower omega-6 to omega 3 ratio. Another benefit is the lower risk of foodborne illness and drug-resistant disease in regenerative farm livestock. The foods associated with the greatest number of foodborne illnesses are all factory-farmed, with CAFO chicken leading the pack.

Between 2009 and 2015 there were 5,760 reported foodborne outbreaks in the U.S.,³⁰ resulting in 100,939 illnesses, 5,699 hospitalizations and 145 deaths. Of these, chicken was responsible for 12% of all illnesses.

The reason contamination with drug-resistant microbes is common in CAFOs is the dependence on and overuse of antibiotics in the livestock.³¹ Organic grass fed standards, on the other hand, do not permit the use of antibiotics,³² which is why grass fed beef is less likely to be contaminated with drug-resistant bacteria.

Take Time to Move Beyond ‘Too Little, Too Late’

Regenerative agriculture prevents environmental pollution and restores damaged ecosystems, as well as benefiting the farmer and helping build sustainable local economies. Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy people, healthy climate, healthy societies — our physical and economic health, our very survival as a species, are directly connected to the soil, biodiversity and the health and fertility of our food and farming systems.

Regenerative organic farming and land use can move us back into balance, back to a stable climate and a life-supporting environment.

It's time to move beyond degenerate farming practices, land use, energy policies, politics and economics. It's time to move beyond "too little, too late" mitigation and sustainability strategies powered by “green opportunities” to grow plants without sunlight and produce meat without animals. It's time to inspire and mobilize a global army of regenerative farmers before it's too late.

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