Archive for December, 2009
New Credit Card Laws for 2010
President Obama recently signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009. Most of this new legislation will begin February 22, 2010.
Some of the highlights of the Bill are:
Interest rate increase protection-
Unless the payment on your account is over 60 days late, an interest rate can no longer be raised. If you are late in paying and the rate is raised, after 6 consecutive on time payments, the increased rate will have to be restored to its previous rate. The interest rate cannot be increased within the first year (12 months) however and the promotional rates have to last for a minimum of 6 months.
Advanced notice of term changes-
The credit card companies now have to let cardholders know at least 45 days in advance if any significant changes (changes to benefits, rewards programs, rates, etc.) will take place to their card.
Limiting credit card use of young adults-
Credit cards will now be banned for people under the age of 21 unless there is an adult co-signer, or good proof that they have the appropriate funds and means to pay off the debt incurred. Also, once a card is obtained by a young adult (under 21), college students will be required to get permission from parents or guardians in order to increase the limits on the joint accounts held by them.
Hidden fees on gift cards-
Gift cards will now be required to stay activated for at least 5 years once activated initially. No longer will dormancy fees be implemented, unless there has been no activity within a 12 month period. If the company does have a dormancy fee though, it must be clearly disclosed to the buyers of the gift cards.
Notification of bill and payment processing-
Credit card companies must have the bills sent out at least 21 days (3 weeks) before the payment is due. If the payment is received by 5 p.m. on the date that it is due, it must be deemed on-time.
For more helpful information on credit cards, credit card processing, and the merchant industry, or to obtain a merchant account and start accepting credit card payments, contact High Risk Credit Card Processor . Our staff of expert credit card processing professionals and helpful customer service associates are waiting to help you provide safe payment processing on your site. Check us out at http://www.highriskcreditcardprocessor.com.
What You Should Know Before Buying Furniture
How to Choose the Best Furniture
BY Getachew Teklu
What you should know before buying furniture, any furniture, is how to find the best fit for your own needs. Every piece of furniture has certain features that determine whether it is a good buy for you or not. Some general rules apply to all furniture purchases, but today there plenty of choices. Since buying furniture is such an investment, understand your choices and how to choose the best furniture for you.
A sofa is one of the most important furniture purchases for your home, so before you buy a sofa make sure you are getting one that fits your needs.
A sofa that is perfect for your living room could be a terrible idea for your family room. First figure out how you want to use your sofa and who will be using it. Determine whether your sofa is a good fit for your space, and since there are sofas to fit any style of room, look for one that satisfies your own personal sense of style. The fabric you select for your sofa contributes immensely to its usability and beauty.
Just as when you buy any furniture, you should be confident that you are buying the best quality sofa for your budget, and that it offers you the comfort you need from it.
A sleeper sofa is a great multifunctional piece of furniture with the potential to turn any room into a bedroom. You can fit a sleeper sofa in so many places – a child’s room, an office or even an appropriately sized alcove.
Almost any sofa can be bought as a sleeper sofa, and sleeper sofas come in all sizes. If you only have room for a twin bed, find one in a chair. A slightly bigger room might be able to accommodate a full-size sleeper sofa, which could function as loveseat when not in use for sleeping. A sofa that seats three people easily can be transformed into a queen-sized bed.
Buy furniture that functions both as comfortable seating and a comfortable bed in any size, and what’s more many sleeper sofas come with hidden storage.
Before you buy a bed, you should know that a comfortable bed is a piece of furniture that is essential to getting a good night’s sleep. But beds also go beyond that function by providing a focal point for your bed room. So look beyond comfort alone to find a bed that is in a style that you like.
Beds are available in all styles, sizes and heights. You can go for a simple uncluttered look, or buy an elaborately carved bed.
In addition to buying a bed for yourself, you may also want to buy a suitable bed for a child or a guest. Sometimes, you may be short on space. But there are plenty of choices for all kinds of beds, such as bunk beds, toddler beds, daybeds, or even regular beds in twin, full, queen or king sizes depending on your needs.
What should you look for before you buy an office chair? An office chair is a piece of furniture that is a sound investment for anyone who spends long hours at a desk.
, seat, and armrests are adjustable. You should be able to adjust the seat height and tilt of your office chair to your own preferences, and ideally the seat should be comfortable enough to support you comfortably, while letting your body breathe. The most important feature to look for is good lumbar support, as an office chair with a good lumbar support lets your back stay in a position that is good for its spine health.backrestsBefore you buy an office chair, check to see if the
5. Before You Buy a Home Entertainment Center
Home entertainment centers come in all different shapes and sizes. With the changing look of today’s televisions, entertainment centers have evolved, too.
You have the choice of buying an entertainment center that completely conceals your equipment or buying one that displays it. If you need a place to organize all your media as well as equipment, you can find entertainment centers that offer plenty of efficient built-in storage.
You should always judge for quality because you are storing expensive and fragile equipment in it. Additionally make sure you are buying an entertainment center that complies with tip-over rules, and lets your equipment breathe to prevent heat buildup.
6. Before You Buy a Table Lamp 
Before you buy a table lamp, determine what kind you need. A table lamp is a furniture accessory that can add so much to a room besides light.
Since table lamps come in all shapes, sizes and styles, they can enable you to dress up a room in style. You can choose a table lamp for its decorative value, as much as for the light it provides. A tall table can be a major source of light in a room, as the taller a lamp the greater its area of illumination. Smaller table lamps can be used accent lighting.
Another wonderful thing about table lamps is that you can change the look of a lamp by the style of shade you choose. And remember, the bulb and wattage you pick should be appropriate for the function and type of your table lamp. For all your furniture needs visit Chicago Furniture Warehouse, inc. www.chicagofurniturewarehouse.com
Finding the best medical insurance plan
By Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecke
Finding the best medical insurance plan is important for several reasons:
* You want to be able to get yourself and your family members medical care whenever you need it. People without health insurance are less likely to get preventive care and to let medical problems go until they become serious.
* You want to be protected from financial disaster if you or someone in your family has a major accident or develops a serious illness. Over 25% of bankruptcy filings are directly related to medical bills.
But what’s the best type of insurance for you? That depends on your needs, age, health status, and more.
Choosing an Insurance Plan
Multiple types of insurance plans are available for you to choose from:
* Traditional indemnity plans that let you choose your doctor and pay for most of your bills once you satisfy the deductible
* Managed care plans such as PPO and HMOS, where you exchange some freedom in selecting your health care providers for lower monthly premiums
* Short-term insurance plans if you just need coverage for a few months
* High-deductible plans, often combined with a Medical Savings account, that cover all your medical bills once you reach the deductible
* Major medical plans that just cover accidents and illnesses
So how do you choose? Look at your lifestyle and see what type of insurance you need.
If you’re young and in good health, you may only need a major medical policy. If you’re looking for a job that offers health insurance as a benefit, then you might need a short-term policy.
Have children to think about? A comprehensive policy, such as an indemnity plan, or a PPO or HMO might offer the best coverage.
Where to Get the Best Rate
Whatever type of policy is best for you, be sure to go to an insurance comparison website and do some comparison shopping before you buy anything. This will help ensure that you’re getting the best price for your insurance.
| Visit http://www.LowerRateQuotes.com/health-insurance.html or click on the following link to get medical insurance plan quotes from top-rated companies and see how much you can save. You can get more tips and advice in their Articles section, and get answers to your questions from an insurance expert by using their online chat service.The authors, Brian Stevens and Stacey Schifferdecker, have spent 30 years in the insurance and finance industries, and have written numerous articles on medical insurance plans. |
Can I trust my ATM Bank balance
By Getachew Teklu
You cannot trust the balance that the ATM gives you. The banking system operates on a system of holds, while money is transferred from your account to other places. Even your debits are not automatically deducted from your checking account. For this reason it is important to keep a running balance of your account at all times. When you make a deposit the bank gives you credit for the deposit, but the check is set to a clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is regional, and if the check is from out-of-state it may need to be sent to another clearinghouse, before the bank actually receives the money for your check. When you deposit a large check from out-of-state the bank may put a hold on it until funds are collected. This protects you from spending the money before you actually get it. If you do this you will have to pay the bank back. Similarly checks do not clear your account the moment that you write them and send them off in the mail. Once the person or company receives your check, they must deposit in their bank and then wait for the money to be transferred from your account. Checks usually take the longest to clear, because it depends on how quickly they company takes the checks to your bank. Debits are not automatically deducted from your account. When you first use your debit card a hold is placed on your account. This hold lasts a few days, and then will drop off. The merchant that accepted your debit card has to send in its transactions in order for the debits to be transferred to them. Although most merchants do this on a daily basis, some small businesses may take longer. When this happens the hold may drop off before the amount is deducted from your account, and your balance would say that you have more than you do. Since you have all of these factors working against you, you should keep a running balance of your account. You cannot simply trust the ATM balance to be the correct one. Similarly just because a debit transaction goes through, it does not mean that you currently have the money to cover the transaction. To keep a running balance you simply record your transactions as you go, then you add and subtract them from your balance in order to get the amount that you really have.
One second at a Time
By Dr. Shaun Stuto
How often do we hear “take it slow,” “take it easy,” “one step at a time,” “one day at a time” “don’t be so hard on yourself” etc… Do we follow the advice? Probably not as often as we should.
Each second of the day we are faced with small and seemingly insignificant decisions; constant tests of do or don’t, right or wrong. Some of these tests might be so minor we don’t even think about them. Perhaps its a q-tip on the floor or a pillow out-of-place on the bed. Do we take the literal one second to pick up the q-tip or adjust the pillow? Or do we leave the “mess on the floor” so to speak, and allow it to accumulate.
Think of how many areas of our life that these one second challenges are adding up! You probably have piles of “stuff” all around you and fail to even notice it. A great philosophy I recently adopted is “if I think it, I must do it.” If I think about taking the trash out, it probably needs to be done. So I do it NOW! By creating this discipline in my life, more gets done and with minimal effort.
Take action and responsibility in your own life. “If I think it I must do it.” By focusing, literally, on one second at a time we get to accumulate many successes throughout our day. Success builds confidence and results. Confidence and results turn into momentum. instead of looking at how far you still have to go in your transformation process, celebrate the small victories that you choose to experience all day.
Success with our transformations is only one decision away, one meal away, one workout away, one journal entry away, or one phone call away to a loved one. It isn’t 12 weeks away or 18 weeks away. It starts now!
|
Dr. Shaun Stuto |
What is important in Life?
By David Shape 
When we are healthy, we seldom think about what it feels like to be sick. But when we are really and truly sick, all we can think about is being healthy again.
No matter how much wealth we manage to accumulate in this world, it is virtually useless without good health. This is tied closely to the knowledge of our own mortality. Deep down, we all know that we only have a handful of decades on Earth and then it’s over.
In light of that, what becomes important then? That is indeed an interesting question. What is important cannot be money, because we can’t take it with us when we die. What is important can’t be our possessions because, once again, they are not going with us. Having money and possessions is very temporary. Those things cease to matter to us when we die.
Some turn to their relationships when they realize this. They feel that family and friends must be the most important thing then. Yet, we will lose contact with family and friends when we pass away too.
Some people die and then come back. They call this the near-death experience. Many of those people talk about what they saw in the state of death. They also talk about how they feel which is almost universally wonderful. There are a few that report going to a very bad place, but the majority feel good. They are free from the pain and suffering of their mortal bodies.
In the near-death experience, many talk about the life review process, where they see their entire lives displayed before them. The good things they do and the bad are right there. In addition they see how their actions and words affected others too. Apparently it can be quite painful to recognize how much we hurt others and caused others pain.
They also get to see the good things they did. I remember one woman who went through the life review process said that the most significant act in her entire life occurred when she was a little girl. She said that the most important action out of her entire life was holding a little flower in her hand and giving it unconditional love. That was it, out of her entire life that was deemed the most significant thing she ever did.
In light of that, we can conclude that what is important is not who we were but how well we treated others in this life. Therefore, when we contemplate our lives and set our goals, maybe it would be a good idea if we thought about others first.
Life is not temporary, but life on Earth is temporary. How are we going to face all those people who are watching what we do, when it is all over? Hopefully, we will have done things that we can be joyous about.
The best investments you can make
Many people – especially singles and young couples who are just starting their careers – have mixed feelings about purchasing a house. They worry about getting tied down and taking on a lot of debt.
Here are 10 compelling reasons why anybody who can afford it should consider buying a home:
1) House prices tend to rise over time, so a house is one of the best investments you can make. Home prices in the U.S. have risen three percent to six percent a year for the past 20 years. That trend is likely to continue. So if you buy a home now, you’ve put your capital in a safe investment where it is likely to grow.
2) You’ll pay less tax. You can deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage from your taxable income. The value of this tax break depends on factors like your personal tax bracket, the size of your mortgage, the rate of interest you pay on it and how long you’ve held the mortgage. As a rule, the newer the mortgage, the greater the amount of interest you pay each month and the bigger the tax break. Therefore, recent buyers with young mortgages tend to get the greatest benefit.
3) You’ll be buying a piece of real property rather than putting money in a landlord’s pocket each month. The real cost of renting is higher than the monthly payment. There is also an opportunity cost equal to the amount you would gain by using the money to purchase a home instead. Even if the house you purchased did not appreciate in price, you would be able to sell it and recoup some of the money you put into it.
4) Interest rates are still historically low. This makes it relatively inexpensive to take out a mortgage. The lower the interest rate, the less you actually pay for your house and the sooner you can pay the mortgage off. Our loan calculator can show you how different interest rates affect the total cost of your mortgage and the time it takes to retire it.
5) You’ll be able to use the equity in your home for low-cost loans for other purposes. You can access the paid-up equity you accumulate in your home in the form of a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit. Because they are secured, home equity loans and lines of credit generally carry a lower interest rate than other types of consumer loans, such as auto loans. The interest on them is generally tax-deductible, as well.
6) You’ll have the stability and emotional security of owning your own home. No more worrying about dictatorial or negligent landlords, rent increases or the possibility your building will be sold and redeveloped or turned into a condo. You’ll be able to live in your house as long as you like, fix your monthly payments for as long as 30 years and you’ll be in charge.
7) You’ll be able to redecorate and renovate any way you like, any time you like. Rules about the paint colors you can use will be a thing of the past. And you’ll be able to tear out walls, install a powder room and make any other improvements you want. Best of all, if you decide to sell, you’ll recoup at least part of the cost of the improvements.
8) You can have a garden. This is one of the big pluses of ownership – a little piece of land you can call your own, where you can grow tomatoes or roses, barbeque, and play with your kids and pets.
9) You’ll be able to put down roots in a community. When you’re a homeowner, you’ll get to know your neighbors, participate in street sales, meet potential baby-sitters and play Saturday-morning touch football in the park. Renters tend to live more insular lives.
10) You’ll have a greater voice in community affairs. Local homeowners generally have more clout – individually and through ratepayer’s associations – when it comes to development proposals, school issues, changes to traffic control and routing and the like. Because renters tend to be more transient than homeowners, they have less influence on policymakers.
Top 10 reason why you need a college education
By Paul Wilson 
Life is full of options and choices. The choices we make shape our future. As we stand at the cross roads after high school we must have the right vision to make the decision to go to college.
1. A college education secures our future. The number of employment opportunities is greater and statistics reveal that most leaders are college grads.
2. If you have a college education you will make more money which in turn will enable you to have a better lifestyle. If a high school graduate earns US$ 34,303 annually, a college graduate will earn US$ 56,334, and a person with a professional qualification will net at least US$ 99,411.
3. It is not just earnings. A college education makes you a rounded person. It shapes your communication skills, expands your knowledge base, makes you methodical and organized, and exposes you to a whole new world of learning.
4. People with a college education have better value systems and are healthier. They are able to guide their family positively.
5. College can help you qualify in fields you are interested in. So if you are an innovator, inventor, or healer, or artist you can train in the specific field and qualify.
6. According to experts, college graduates are self-confident, have greater knowledge of governance, are less likely to become criminals, are emotionally and financially secure, make better partners and parents, and have a deeper understanding of human nature.
7. College instills a deep sense of right and wrong and is they very essence of a democratic world.
8. Education opens the doors to many things like multiple jobs, career choices, the chance to further education at any point in life, and the option of teaching others what you have learnt. Be it a child, family member, or a poor person you meet.
9. College education is an investment in you that yields much more than Wall Street investments.
10. College educated citizens will ensure the continuing success of the “American Dream.” The ability to see the right path and work for peace and prosperity.
Students according to Jose Marti a patriot are the very ramparts of a nation and the strongest advocates of freedom. Education creates a conscience and as a result a better human being. College education eventually becomes a legacy for future generations. Most succeeding generations of college educated people go to college themselves. The value of a good education becomes ingrained in their genes. Huge stones can be moved with muscle power but it is brain power that tells you how to move it and what can be done with it.
|
Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for http://www.1888Onlinecolleges.com/, the premier website to find top ranking colleges online directory including topics on public colleges, private colleges, online college, college course online, information on college costs, financial aid, degrees awarded, enrollments and more. He also freelances for premier Discussion Site http://www.1888Discuss.com |
Wine: How Much Is Good for You?
WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
A glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away. Could this be true? WebMD talks to experts to learn how we can get the health benefits of wine or alcohol while keeping our weight in check.
Do Like the French?
The French diet is often used as an example of how wine can improve heart health. The French have a fairly high-fat diet but their heart disease risk is relatively low. And some have attributed this to red wine.
But there are so many differences between the lifestyle of the French and Americans from their activity levels to the foods they eat. You cannot isolate red wine as the magic bullet for disease prevention says Alice Lichtenstein, DrS, Gershoff Professor at Tufts University.
Choose whichever alcoholic beverage you enjoy, drink it in moderation and try to have it with meals, advise Lichtenstein and Eric Rimm, DrS, a Harvard researcher.
Arthur Agatston, MD, cardiologist and creator of the popular South Beach diet, encourages patients who enjoy alcohol to also drink it with meals.
“Alcohol can stimulate the appetite so it is better to drink it with food. When alcohol is mixed with food, it can slow the stomach’s emptying time and potentially decrease the amount of food consumed at the meal,” asserts Agatston. His alcohol of choice is red wine due to the antioxidant resveratrol. However, he agrees that any alcohol in limited quantity will provide the same health benefit.
There is a misperception that red wine is abundant in antioxidants. “It does contain some, but they are not always well absorbed. If you want antioxidants, you are better off eating a spinach salad with vegetables than drinking a glass of red wine,” Rimm tells WebMD.
Lower Your Cholesterol
Alcohol also can have a very powerful effect and increase HDL “good” cholesterol by 20% if used moderately and in the context of a healthy diet along with regular physical activity, says Rimm. Higher HDL levels are linked to lower risks of heart disease.
“The research evidence points to ethanol, or the alcohol component, of beer, wine, or spirits as the substrate that can help lower cholesterol levels, increase ‘good’ HDL cholesterol,” he says.
Boost Your Brain
A recent study shows a boost in brain power for women who enjoy a little alcohol. The study, published in the Jan. 20 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated more than 12,000 women aged 70-81. Moderate drinkers scored better than teetotalers on tests of mental function. Researchers found a boost in brainpower with one drink a day. Moderate drinkers had a 23% reduced risk of mental decline compared with nondrinkers.
Source webmd
Is Soy Good for You?
By Terri L. Saunders 
In the last decade or so an interesting phenomenon has occurred in the American diet. Soy products have gone mainstream. Soy’s popularity began as a source of protein for vegetarians, and in recent years has been touted as a potential cure-all for heart disease, cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, hot flashes, and the answer to world hunger. Soy-based veggie burgers can now be found in fast food restaurants, with tofu dishes a common offering in some of the most exclusive restaurants. Even public schools have jumped on the bandwagon by including soy foods and additives in school lunches. How did this happen, and what exactly do we know about this upstart food?
In November, 1999 the Third International Soy Symposium was held in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the United Soybean Board, American Soybean Association, Monsanto, Protein Technologies International, Central Soya, Cargil Foods, Personal Products Company, SoyLife, Whitehall-Robins Healthcare and the soybean councils of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota. Presentations by scientists funded by these organizations marked the culmination of a decade of research intended to win FDA approval and consumer acceptance of soy products such as tofu, soy milk, soy cheese, soy sausage, and estrogen-like compounds including isoflavones, genistein and diadzen.
As we now know, this marketing campaign was highly successful, yet many of the research studies funded by the soy industry have been challenged by independent scientists. Outspoken nutritionists such as Sally Fallon and Mary Enig go even further to point out the problems with soy and the negative impact these products can have on our health.
According to them, “Advances in technology make it possible to produce isolated soy protein [the key ingredient that imitates meat and dairy] from what was once considered a waste product—the defatted, high protein soy chips—and then transform something that looks and smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings. Flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned soy protein isolate, the food processors’ugly ducking, into a New Age Cinderella.”
Apparently, until the latter part of the twentieth century, the soybean was considered unfit to eat. Ancient pictographs in China show the soybean not as a food, but as a rotation crop used to fix nitrogen in the soil. It wasn’t until the discovery of the fermentation process during the Chou Dynasty that soy became edible. The first fermented soy products were tempeh, natto, miso and soy sauce. Later, Chinese scientists discovered that a puree of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium sulphate (plaster of Paris) or magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) to make a smooth pale curd known as tofu. Popularity of fermented and precipitated soy products spread to other Asian countries such as Japan and Indonesia.
The Chinese did not eat unfermented soy products because they knew that soybeans contain natural toxins or antinutrients such as phytates and enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other protein-digesting enzymes. These toxic compounds are not deactivated during cooking and can cause gastric distress, reduced protein digestion, and chronic deficiencies in amino acids and.minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc. Animal studies show that diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and disease of the pancreas, including cancer. Vegetarians who consume tofu as a substitute for meat and dairy products risk severe protein and mineral deficiencies. Zinc deficiencies are particularly common, and can cause impaired functioning of the brain and nervous system as well as blood-sugar imbalance and reproductive and immune disorders. Zinc deficiency can cause that “spacey” feeling associated with the “high” some vegetarians may mistake for spiritual enlightenment.
Soybeans also contain a clot-promoting substance called haemagglutinin, that causes red blood cells to clump together. Haemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors are both growth inhibitors, demonstrated in studies of weaning rats that failed to grow normally when fed soy. Enzyme inhibitors and growth suppressants are deactivated during the fermentation process, while in precipitated soy products such as tofu and bean curd they are concentrated in the soaking liquid but not completely eliminated from the food. Soy milk and soy cheese, however, are loaded with antinutrients.
About 15% of infants in the U.S. or approximately 750,000 children consume soy-based formula each year. Genistein, an estrogen-like substance found in infant formulas and menopause remedies may depress immune function. When mice were injected with genistein, levels of immune cells dropped and the thymus gland, where immune cells mature, shrank. This was of particular concern, since the blood levels of genistein in the injected mice were lower than the blood levels of genistein in babies fed soy-based formulas.
New research shows that high concentrations of manganese found in soy formula can lead to brain damage in infants and altered behaviors in adolescents. Dr. Francis Crinella at the University of California described how the soybean plant lifts up manganese in the soil and concentrates it, creating levels of manganese in soy formulas that are 200 times the level found in breast milk. A newborn cannot excrete this extreme manganese load, creating high manganese levels in the blood, liver, kidneys and other soft tissues of the body, including the brain. Manganese overload has been implicated in cases of brain damage and movement disorders.
Crinella’s research detected high levels of manganese in the scalp hair of hyperactive children when compared with matched control subjects. Everett Hodges, founder of the Violence Research Foundation, refers to Crinella’s research by stating, “Criminals ages 16 and 17 years old today, some of them born to poor mothers between 1983 and 1984, could have received from the government soy formula with enough manganese to disrupt growing brains, and this may be why adolescents have difficulty restraining aggressive impulses now.”
Dr. Joseph Mercola notes in his newsletter that soy formulas contain high levels of aluminum (1,000% higher levels than cow’s milk formulas) and the phytoestrogen substance isoflavones. He says that a soy-fed baby receives the equivalent of five birth control pills’ worth of estrogen every day. These babies’ isoflavone levels were found to be from 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than in non-soy fed infants. Early onset of puberty in girls and abnormal development of testes in boys have been linked to this unnatural surge of hormones in early life
Studies also show that maternal exposure during pregnancy to the phytoestrogen genistein causes an increase in the number of estrogen receptor sites in the breast tissue of female offspring, thus increasing their risk of developing breast cancer. As a result of this research pregnant women are urged not to ingest soy products.
Naomi Baumslag, clinical professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University, points out that soy formula is deficient in linoleic and oleic essential fatty acids, DHA-brain-growth factor, epidermal growth factor, lactoferrin, casomorphin and immune factors such as IgA, neutrophils, macrophages, T-cells, B-cells and interferon—all provided by the mother in breast milk to defend her baby. She says, “Only 50% of newborns today suckle at the mother’s breast even once. After six months, the number has fallen to only one in five. Often mothers, for the sake of convenience, plunk soy bottles into the infant’s mouth. Why do so many mothers in the United States imagine they have given birth to a baby soybean instead of a human child?”
Soy also contains goitrogens which are substances that depress thyroid function in infants and adults. Studies show that premenopausal women who ingested 45 mg of soy isofalavones per day experienced a reduction in hormones needed for adequate thyroid function, lasting for 3 months after soy consumption was discontinued. In addition, soy is high in oxalate, a compound that binds with calcium in the formation of kidney stones. Oxalates are particularly high in textured soy protein, often used as a meat substitute.
Claims that a diet rich in soy can prevent cancer are based on the observation that the Japanese, who eat 30 times as much soy as North Americans, have a lower incidence of cancers of the breast, uterus and prostate. Fallon and Enig point out that Asians in general have much higher rates of other types of cancer, particularly cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver and thyroid. Asians typically eat mostly fermented soy products which are usually accompanied by meat in the same meal which may offset some of soy’s negative effects.
Even soy-based animal feed has been shown to disrupt normal development in animals as well as induce disease conditions that are not normally present with their natural diet.
Most soy products on the market today are genetically engineered which creates a whole new set of problems. Government subsidies have enticed farmers to convert many of their crops from “real food” to soy. Internationally, IMF money funds soy processing plants in foreign countries, and free trade policies encourage soy distribution around the world.
The global campaign to convert the world’s food supply to a substance that is difficult to digest, causes nutritional deficiencies, and contributes to disease is well under way. As always, the choice is ours.
Terri Saunders is a certified Herbalist and Nutritionist in Charlottesville, Virginia where she does consultations, phone consultations and classes on natural healing. She can be reached at Sunrise Herb Shoppe at 434-984-2665, or email at sunherb@sunherb.com. For more information, check website at www.sunriseherbshop.com.
