Day: January 2, 2023

• Americans had lost nearly three years of life expectancy during 2020 and 2021. In 2019, the average life span of Americans of all ethnicities was 78.8 years. By the end of 2020, it had dropped to 77.0 years and by the end of 2021 it was 76.4

• From 2020 to 2021, death rates increased for each age group 1 year and over. The age groups with the highest increases include working age adults, 25 to 54, and children under 4

• The leading causes of death in 2021 were heart disease, cancer and COVID-19, all three of which were higher in 2021 than 2020. Unintentional injury and stroke also significantly increased in 2021

• Heart disease, stroke and cancer are all now-known side effects of the COVID jabs. Unintentional injuries may also be due to the shots, as you may easily be injured if you pass out or suffer a heart attack or stroke while doing just about anything

• If the COVID jabs worked, you’d expect excess mortality to drop, yet that’s not what we’re seeing. We’re also not seeing mass death from COVID. The only clear factor that might account for these discrepancies is mass injection with an experimental gene transfer technology

In August 2022, provisional life expectancy estimates1 2 for 2021 were released, showing Americans had lost nearly three years of life expectancy during 2020 and 2021. In December 2022, the finalized mortality report3 confirmed these shocking data.

In 2019, the average life span of Americans of all ethnicities was 78.8 years.4 By the end of 2020, it had dropped to 77.0 years5 and by the end of 2021, it was 76.4.6 As detailed in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s finalized mortality report for 2021:7

“In 2021, life expectancy at birth was 76.4 years for the total U.S. population — a decrease of 0.6 year from 77.0 years in 2020 … For males, life expectancy decreased 0.7 year from 74.2 in 2020 to 73.5 in 2021. For females, life expectancy decreased 0.6 year from 79.9 in 2020 to 79.3 in 2021 … From 2020 to 2021, death rates increased for each age group 1 year and over …”

As Virginia Commonwealth University professor of population health Dr. Steven Woolf told USA Today,8 “That means all the medical advances over the past quarter century have been erased.”

Age-specific rates of death increased across all age groups as follows:9

• 10.1% for age group 1–4 (from 22.7 deaths per 100,000 population in 2020 to 25.0 in 2021)

• 4.4% for 5–14 (13.7 to 14.3)

• 5.6% for 15–24 (84.2 to 88.9)

• 13.4% for 25–34 (159.5 to 180.8)

• 16.1% for 35–44 (248.0 to 287.9)

• 12.1% for 45–54 (473.5 to 531.0)

• 7.5% for 55–64 (1,038.9 to 1,117.1)

• 3.8% for 65–74 (2,072.3 to 2,151.3)

• 2.4% for 75–84 (4,997.0 to 5,119.4)

• 3.5% for 85 and over (15,210.9 to 15,743.3)

As you can see, something very strange is going on here. While life expectancy dropped across all age groups, the age groups with the highest increases in mortality were working age adults, 25 through 54, followed by children between the ages of 1 and 4.

The leading causes of death in 2021 were heart disease, cancer and COVID-19, all three of which were higher in 2021 than 2020.10 Unintentional injury and stroke also significantly increased in 2021.

Heart disease, stroke and cancer are all now-known side effects of the COVID jabs. Unintentional injuries may also be due to the shots, as you may easily be injured if you pass out or suffer a heart attack or stroke while doing just about anything.

Woolf, however, believes low COVID-19 jab rates and general poor health of Americans are to blame for the increased mortality. In addition to disregarding the fact that the primary causes of death are side effects of the COVID shots, working age adults and children are also, comparatively speaking, the healthiest groups in general and ought to have a lower risk of death from any cause, but especially heart disease and cancer.

And, since they have a far lower risk of dying from COVID in the first place (compared to the elderly), a slightly lower COVID jab rate in this age group is unlikely to have made such a huge difference.

According to CDC data,11 84% of 25- to 49-year-olds got at least one dose and 71% is considered “fully ‘vaccinated.’” In the 50 to 64 year category, it’s 95% and 83% respectively. In the 65 and over category, 95% got at least one dose and 93% are “fully ‘vaccinated,’” so it’s not like there’s a major difference in jab rates.

COVID-19 is an unlikely cause for the rapid decline in life expectancy for the simple fact that it’s not a major contributor to rising excess mortality. Excess mortality is a statistic that is related to but separate from life expectancy.

It refers to the difference between the observed numbers of deaths (from all causes) during a given time, compared to the expected number of deaths based on historical norms, such as the previous five-year average. (Formula: reported deaths minus expected deaths equals excess deaths.)

Across the world, excess mortality has dramatically risen since the start of the pandemic, and barely a day now goes by without a healthy adult suddenly dropping dead with no apparent cause. People have died during live broadcasts, in the middle of speeches and during dinner.

Clearly, they were feeling well enough to go to work, to an event or a restaurant, and something caused them to instantaneously die without warning. These are the people making up these excess death statistics. They shouldn’t be dead, yet something took them out.

While COVID-positive deaths were part of the equation in 2020, excess deaths really took off after the rollout of the COVID jabs, not during the height of the pandemic as one would expect if COVID-19 was the real killer.12 Besides, we already know that “COVID-19 death” simply means that the person tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of death or just prior to it.

“If the COVID jabs worked, you’d expect excess mortality to drop, yet that’s not what we’re seeing. We’re also not seeing mass death from COVID. The only clear factor that might account for these discrepancies is mass injection with an experimental gene transfer technology.”

For the U.S., there were 3,440,546 deaths of all ages for the year 2020.13 The expected numbers were 3,028,959, so that was an excess of 13.6% (411,587 above expected). In 2021, there were 3,459,496 deaths of all ages, which was 16.4% above expectations. As of mid-April 2022, the excess death rate was already at 14.1%, with 1,041,538 reported deaths of all ages.

If the COVID jabs worked, you’d expect excess mortality to drop, yet that’s not what we’re seeing. We’re also not seeing mass death from COVID. The only clear factor that might account for these discrepancies is mass injection with an experimental gene transfer technology.

Life insurance data confirm that it’s working age adults who are dying in record numbers, which is what’s really driving down life expectancy. In the third quarter of 2021, the death rate of working-age Americans (18 to 64) was 40% higher than prepandemic levels, and these deaths were, again, not attributed to COVID.

As noted by Dr. Robert Malone in a January 2022 Substack article,14 workers were forced to accept the toxic COVID jabs at a higher frequency relative to the general population. This, I believe, is the real answer to why they’re dying at a disproportionate rate.

As for children under 4, well, toxins tend to be more dangerous to younger children, so it’s no great shock that the death rate for children has risen more than the rate of older people. After all, we’re now giving these toxic COVID jabs to babies as young as 6 months old.

As mentioned, the leading causes of death in 2021 were heart disease, cancer and COVID-19. Data analysis by The Ethical Skeptic15 — self-described as a former intelligence officer and strategist — shows cancer deaths are now being mislabeled as COVID deaths. The suspicion is that this is an effort to hide the fact that the COVID shots have resulted in soaring cancer rates.

Seven of the 11 International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes tracked by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics — including cancer — saw sharp upticks starting in the first week of April 2021, which is when large swaths of the American population were getting their first COVID jabs. 

According to The Ethical Skeptic’s analysis of U.S. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) data, the CDC has been filtering and redesignating cancer deaths as COVID deaths since Week 14 of 2021 to eliminate the cancer signal.16

The following two charts illustrate how cancer mortality is being artificially suppressed. As explained by The Ethical Skeptic:17 18

“The set dynamics are complex, but the principle is straightforward. When a death cert lists Cancer as the UCoD [underlying cause of death] and COVID as MCoD [main cause of death] — the UCoD & MCoD are being swapped, and COVID is being listed as the UCoD 100% (425/wk).

“This results in 20% of all COVID deaths each week, also happening to be persons dying of Cancer — which is egregiously higher than it should be. This is clear over-attribution = equates to exactly the difference between the Cancer and All Other ICD-10 code lag curves.”

The problem facing the CDC, is … What does one do when COVID Mortality is no longer substantial enough to conceal the excess Cancer Mortality?”

So, to rephrase, what The Ethical Skeptic is saying is that 20% of the weekly so-called COVID deaths are cancer deaths, which is rather astounding. Swapping the underlying and main causes of death, listing COVID as the main cause, hides (to some degree) the fact that cancer deaths are going through the roof.

According to his analysis, the COVID shot is killing 7,300 Americans per week. COVID, meanwhile, is killing 1,740 people.19 What will the CDC blame when COVID disappears, and they can no longer swap the underlying and main cause of death designations? Time will tell.

In the meantime, cancer is already one of the leading causes that is prematurely killing Americans, and uncontrollable turbo-charged cancers only started to occur after the rollout of the COVID jabs.20

Former National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins recently suggested misinformation spread by White Evangelical Christians are driving vaccine hesitancy, and that it’s this religious “culture war” that is killing Americans.

Collins either has an agenda or is seriously confused, as statistics show whites in general had the highest COVID jab uptake rates when the jabs came out, and people who took it were far more likely to promote the jab than discourage it. As reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation:21

“… federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 78% of the total population in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine …

Over the course of the vaccination rollout, Black and Hispanic people have been less likely than their White counterparts to receive a vaccine, but these disparities have narrowed over time and reversed for Hispanic people.”

Christians in general also haven’t been particularly “hesitant” about getting the jab. An investigation by the Public Religion Research Institute found22 56% of white evangelical protestants got jabbed, as did 74% of White mainline protestants and 79% of white Catholics. For some reason, the jab rates among Black religious affiliations were not assessed, so we have no idea whether religion has influenced Blacks to reject the shot.

Bear in mind, the COVID jab rate for the U.S. as a whole (one dose or more) is 79%,23 so Christians in general are about as average as you can get. Granted, evangelical protestants have a significantly lower rate, but is Collins suggesting white evangelicals are causing Blacks to reject the jab — because Blacks had, and still have, the lowest jab rates.24

As detailed in “Vaccines Are the New ‘Purity Test,’” the Nazis used a four-step process for dehumanizing Jews,25 — prejudice, scapegoating, discrimination and persecution. By scapegoating Jews as dirty and diseased, the German public was indoctrinated into agreeing with, or at least going along with, the Nazis’ genocidal plan.

Over the past three years, we’ve seen how government officials have repeatedly tried to pin blame for the spread of COVID on one specific group or another. Fortunately, these narratives didn’t stick in the long term, but they did do significant harm for a time.

Collins’ attack on evangelical Christians is just the latest example of how they try to maintain control by seeding division among races, religious and political groups. The more we distrust and fear each other, the less we pay attention to the real criminals.

But, in order for this the division attempt to work, there must be a target, a scapegoat, toward which people can direct their frustration. COVID-19 is now endemic and a rare threat to anyone. COVID narratives are simply being recycled to keep the fear of illness and distrust among people going.

It’s important to realize, though, that fear is the No. 1 destroyer of freedom. The greater your fear, the more you’ll obey, and the more you obey, the more freedom you must give up. And freedoms relinquished are never voluntarily given back by those in power. People throughout the ages have always had to fight to regain freedoms lost.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Esteemed U.K. cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, has called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt the rollout of the COVID-19 mRNA shots in light of the “ongoing unnecessary harm that is devastating individuals and families”

• He spent nine months analyzing studies, and now he believes the program to inject people with a genetic experiment should be suspended immediately and has since joined a growing body of researchers, scientists and doctors who do not follow the mainstream COVID narrative

• Malhotra reviewed the data with the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA). At the end of the conversation, the BMA chair commented, “I don’t think anybody has critically appraised the data as well as you have. Most of these people are getting their information on the vaccine from the BBC”

• Despite the high number of people who have taken the jab, the number of deaths has continued to rise; U.K. data show roughly 80% of all cases, hospitalizations and deaths were in the vaccinated

• Of the excess number of 2021 non-COVID deaths, many were from heart disease, which is a known effect of the mRNA genetic jab

Esteemed U.K. cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra,1 has called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to halt the rollout of the COVID-19 mRNA shots in light of the “ongoing unnecessary harm that is devastating individuals and families.”2

Despite efforts by the CDC and FDA to minimize the data those same agencies are collecting through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS),3 the number of people who are sick, permanently disabled or die from the shot continues to rise. Data from December 9, 2022,4 show 32,828 deaths, 61,065 permanently disabled and 35,828 myocarditis inflammatory responses.

These numbers are also likely lower than the actual damage being done.5 One paper from Columbia University reports there were “146K to 187K vaccine-associated U.S. deaths between February and August 2021.”6

The topic of vaccines has always been controversial, but it reached a fever pitch during COVID when it became sacrilegious to speak out against them, or even question their safety and efficacy. Malhotra has been keeping track of the numbers.

“They (politicians & media) may keep their hands over their eyes, but we can see them & the silence is DEAFENING,” he tweeted. “Please stop this rollout NOW.”7

Until July 2021, Malhotra was an outspoken supporter of the COVID-19 genetic jabs. However, he began taking a closer look at the data after his 73-year-old father died.8

He spent nine months analyzing studies, and now he believes that the mRNA program to inject people with a genetic experiment should be suspended immediately and has since joined a growing body of researchers, scientists and doctors who do not follow the mainstream COVID narrative.

During an interview with Epoch TV, Malhotra noted that “ethical evidence-based medical practice” should be the default for medical care, but has fallen by the wayside with the release of the COVID jabs. After critically analyzing the data from the COVID-19 shots, he believes the efficacy of the technology is “very, very poor” in comparison to traditional vaccines. Additionally, the shots are not only ineffective but “the harms were unprecedented.”

Early in the pandemic, Malhotra took two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and went on Good Morning Britain to help tackle vaccine hesitancy. He shared what little information he had at the time, which he later learned was wrong. After months of evaluating the evidence, he says this about the current shot program:9

“We’re talking about one of the most poorly efficacious pharmacological interventions in the history of medicine with the worst side effect profile being the most lucrative and profitable. And when you try and join those dots together, the picture that it paints is extremely ugly. A real indictment on our whole healthcare system.”

Malhotra notes that to prevent one COVID death in people over 80 years, 230 people must take the shot. To prevent one death in people between 70 and 80, 520 people must be jabbed. In people under 70 years, thousands must take the jab to prevent just one person from dying.

Malhotra would tell a person in their 50s that to prevent one person from dying, 2,000 people must get the shot and based on the evidence now available, for every 800 people who take the shot, one experiences a severe adverse event including disability. He went on to describe the data from the drug companies that led to the approval.10

“We know now that the original trials — the gold standard randomized control trials — that led to the approval by the regulators of the vaccine in the first place revealed you were more likely to suffer a serious adverse event from the vaccine than you were to be hospitalized with COVID.”

From the data that have been gathered since the shot program rolled out, Malhotra notes that while “The harm of the vaccine remains constant, the risk of COVID goes down.”11 Under normal circumstances, scientists and public health experts would not be debating this vaccine program. Instead, “it would have been pulled a long time ago.”

Speaking November 14, 2022, at Friend’s House,12 Malhotra described some of the psychological effects that have occurred in the last three years which triggered the division and passionately different points of view concerning the pandemic and the genetic jabs.

His first point was that fear is a psychological phenomenon that can inhibit our ability to think critically. This is a crucial point to understand since it’s a continuing challenge, which I believe has been perpetuated by the media and agencies in the hope of continuing to control your behavior. Malhotra notes that at the start of the pandemic most of the world was gripped by a type of fear that has never been experienced in our lifetime.

The second reason that many people have such differing views is willful blindness or turning “a blind eye to the truth in order to feel safe, to avoid conflict, to reduce anxiety and to protect prestige or, in some cases, precious fragile egos.”

He notes that it is important to understand this so that moving forward the right information is disseminated in the right way and that it is done compassionately for people who are struggling under the burden of fear. He then quoted the late Stephen Hawking, who stated, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.”13

Malhotra argues that when the British National Health Service (NHS) was founded in 1948 it was done so to create health care that was free at the point of need and the point of use. However, he believes that many people have forgotten that it was also created to ensure that people received the best possible care they could at the time that it was given.

He describes John Ioannidis, professor of medicine at Stanford, as the Stephen Hawking of medicine. He agrees with Ioannidis’ evaluation that medical misinformation stems from a lack of understanding of the published research by health care professionals and the poor reliability of research to be translated into decision-making for patients.

Malhotra quotes Ioannidis, saying, “ignorance of this problem even at the highest levels of academic and clinical leadership is profound.”

After spending months reviewing the data, Malhotra spent two hours with the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) reviewing the data. At the end of the conversation, Malhotra shared the BMA chair’s comment:14

“… from all the people I’ve spoken to in medical leadership positions, and you know he brought into the conversation the chief medical officer in this as well, he said I don’t think anybody has critically appraised the data as well as you have. Most of these people are getting their information on the vaccine from the BBC.”

Despite the high number of people who have taken the jab, the number of deaths has continued to rise. The data show that there are not only excess deaths from non-COVID-related diseases, but also a report from the U.K. shows 9 of every 10 deaths that were related to COVID were in those who were fully vaccinated.

The Expose15 reported on the U.K. in March 2022, noting that most people were distracted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, during which the U.K. government quietly released a vaccine surveillance report showing roughly 80% to 90% of all cases, hospitalizations and deaths were in people who were vaccinated.

In total, the number of COVID cases in England from January 24, 2022, to February 20, 2022, were 404,030 in unvaccinated people and 1,086,434 in people who had taken one, two or three shots. In small geographical areas, it appears the data from the U.S. is similar.16 However the raw numbers gathered by the CDC are different since, in April 2022, the CDC defined fully vaccinated individuals as two weeks after their final dose.17

By September 2022, the CDC had changed the definition to “You are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines if you have completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series and received the most recent booster dose recommended for you by CDC.”18

Not all who are fully vaccinated are identified on admission to the hospital, so analyzing U.S. numbers is difficult, if not impossible. It is probably safe to assume that someone identified as fully vaccinated has met the CDC standard and that the unvaccinated group likely contains people who are not two weeks after their primary series or who are fully vaccinated and were not identified on admission to the hospital. You must ask yourself if this statistical chaos is intentional.

In addition to the data showing the jabs are not effective is the fact that the overall number of deaths from non-COVID diseases is also on the rise. In November 2021, Silicon Valley software engineer Ben M. revealed data on Twitter19 that showed over a 13-week period roughly 107,700 seniors died above the normal rate, despite a 98.7% vaccination rate. Four days earlier he revealed that CDC data for excess deaths in Vermont, tweeting:20

“Vermont had 71% of their entire population vaccinated by June 1, 2021. That’s 83% of their adult population, yet they are seeing the most excess deaths now since the pandemic!”

In November 2021, the U.K. also revealed an excess number of deaths as compared to the same period between 2015 and 2019.21 Additionally, non-COVID deaths in the U.K. were higher than the weekly average in the five years prior to the pandemic. Of these excess deaths, many were the result of heart disease and strokes.

This information is particularly concerning since researchers have found that the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA shots dramatically increase biomarkers associated with thrombosis, cardiomyopathy and other vascular events after injection. The study was published in the journal Circulation and originally concluded that:22

“… the mRNA vacs dramatically increase inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for the observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination.”

But this was later changed to:23

“… the mRNA vacs numerically increase (but not statistically tested) the markers IL-16, Fas, and HGF, all markers previously described by others for denoting inflammation on the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle, in a consecutive series of a single clinic patient population receiving mRNA vaccines without a control group.”

In a December 17, 2022 GBN segment,24 Neil Oliver, British television presenter, archaeologist, historian and author, quoted American scientist Carl Sagan, who insisted on “aggressive, enthusiastic skepticism at all times in relation to science because that’s how we get ahead, by remaining open to new ideas at all times. Skeptical inquiry is the order of the day.”

He was of course referencing the phenomenal differences in opinion around the COVID pandemic and the genetic jab. As one example he talked about the few minutes in which Andrew Bridgen presented before the House of Commons that Oliver believes should make the “Big Book of History.”

Bridgen called for a complete suspension of the rollout of vaccines because of “clear and robust data of significant harms and little ongoing benefit.” Bridgen referenced the research by Malhotra, who has described the rollout of the Pfizer product as “perhaps the greatest miscarriage of medical science attack on democracy, damage to population health and erosion of trust in medicine that we will witness in our lifetime.”

Bridgen also referenced the half a million reports of serious adverse effects and a journalist from a major news outlet who is afraid to report what he’s seen or he would lose his job. He talked about the re-analysis of Pfizer’s data that was published in a peer-reviewed journal demonstrating there was one serious adverse effect for every 800 jabs and how other products have been withdrawn from the market after far lower incidences of harm.

Bridgen concluded that we’ve sacrificed far too many citizens “on the altar of ignorance and unfettered corporate greed.” He was followed by Maria Caulfield, under secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care. Although she didn’t speak as long, she was unequivocal in her belief that the vaccine had made the biggest difference in combating COVID-19.

She was adamant that all the vaccines in the U.K. are safe and debunked what she called conspiracy theories that people were benefiting financially from the vaccine. Oliver admits it is not possible for both individuals to be talking about the same reality, but it was apparent that they each were as committed to their worldview as the other. In his opinion, of these two mutually exclusive worldviews, one of them has gotten it “badly, badly wrong.”

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Two of the most harmful ingredients in processed foods are high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil, whether partially hydrogenated, organic, or made from newer soybean varieties modified in such a way as to not require hydrogenation

• Completely unnatural man-made fats created through the partial hydrogenation process cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and studies have linked trans-fats to health problems ranging from obesity and diabetes to reproductive problems and heart disease

• Besides the health hazards related to the trans fats created by the partial hydrogenation process, soybean oil is, in and of itself, NOT a healthy oil

• Add to that the fact that the majority of soybeans grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered, and as a result saturated with dangerous levels of the herbicide glyphosate, which may have additional health consequences as there are no long term safety studies

• When taken together, partially hydrogenated GE soybean oil becomes one of the absolute worst types of oils you can consume

• The genetically engineered (GE) variety planted on over 90% of U.S. soy acres is Roundup Ready engineered to survive being doused with otherwise lethal amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (glyphosate). GE soybeans have been found to contain residue levels as high as 17 mg/kg, and malformations in frog and chicken embryos have occurred at just over 2 mg/kg

Processed food is perhaps the most damaging aspect of most people’s diets, contributing to poor health and chronic disease. One of the primary culprits is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the dangers of which I touch on in virtually every article I write on diets. The second culprit is partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

These two ingredients, either alone or in combination, can be found in virtually all processed foods, and one can make a compelling argument that the reliance on these two foods is a primary contributing factor for most of the degenerative diseases attacking Americans today.

Part of the problem with partially hydrogenated soybean oil is the trans fat it contains. The other part relates to the health hazards of soy itself. An added hazard factor is the fact that the majority of both corn and soybeans are genetically engineered.

As the negative health effects from trans fats have been identified and recognized, the agricultural and food industry have scrambled to come up with new alternatives.

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil has been identified as the main culprit, and for good reason. Unfortunately, saturated fats are still mistakenly considered unhealthy by many health “experts,” so, rather than embracing truly healthful tropical fats like coconut oil, which is mostly grown outside the U.S., the food industry has instead turned to domestic U.S. alternatives offered by companies like Monsanto, now Bayer (which bought out Monsanto in 2018), which has developed modified soybeans that don’t require hydrogenation.

Americans consume more than 16 million metric tons of edible oils annually, and soybean oil accounts for about 11,339 metric tons of it.1 Until Monsanto genetically engineered its seeds to produce plants lower in linolenic acid, about half of it was hydrogenated, as regular soybean oil is too unstable otherwise to be used in food manufacturing.

One of the primary reasons for hydrogenating oil is to prolong its shelf life. Raw butter, for example, is likely to go rancid far quicker than margarine. The process also makes the oil more stable and raises its melting point, which allows it to be used in various types of food processing that uses high temperatures.

Hydrogenated oil2 is made by forcing hydrogen gas into the oil at high pressure. Virtually any oil can be hydrogenated. Margarine is a good example, in which nearly half of the fat content is trans fat.

The process that creates partially hydrogenated oil alters the chemical composition of essential fatty acids, such as reducing or removing linolenic acid, a highly reactive triunsaturated fatty acid, transforming it into the far less reactive linoleic acid, thereby greatly preventing oxidative rancidity when used in cooking.

In the late 1990s, researchers began realizing this chemical alteration might actually have adverse health effects. Since then, scientists have verified this to the point of no dispute.

Be aware that there’s a difference between “fully hydrogenated” and “partially hydrogenated” oils. Whereas partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fat, fully hydrogenated oil does not, as taking the hydrogenation process “all the way” continues the molecular transformation of the fatty acids from trans fat into saturated fatty acids.

Fully hydrogenated soybean oil is still not a healthy choice, however, for reasons I’ll explain below. The following slide presentation explains the technical aspects relating to the hydrogenation process.

The completely unnatural man-made fats created through the partial hydrogenation process cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level, and studies have linked trans-fats to:

• Cancer, by interfering with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer

• Chronic health problems such as obesity, asthma, auto-immune disease, cancer and bone degeneration

• Diabetes, by interfering with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes

• Heart disease, by clogging your arteries (Among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans-fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!)

• Decreased immune function, by reducing your immune response

• Increased blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad” cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or “good” cholesterol

• Reproductive problems by interfering with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones

• Interfering with your body’s use of beneficial omega-3 fats

As usual, it took many years before conventional health recommendations caught up and began warning about the use of trans fats. Not surprisingly, as soon as the FDA notified them that it planned to require food manufacturers to list trans fat content on the label — which ultimately took effect January 1, 2006 — the industry began searching for viable alternatives to appeal to consumers who increasingly began looking for the “no trans fat” designation.

It didn’t take long before Monsanto had tinkered forth a genetically engineered soybean that is low in linolenic acid, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Be aware that some food manufacturers have opted to simply fool buyers — a tactic allowed by the FDA, as any product containing up to half a gram of trans fat per serving can still legally claim to have zero trans fat.3 The trick is to reduce the serving size to bring it below this threshold. At times, this will result in unreasonably tiny serving sizes, so any time you check a label and a serving is something like 10 chips or one cookie, it probably contains trans fats.

Besides the health hazards related to the trans fats created by the partial hydrogenation process, soybean oil is, in and of itself, NOT a healthy oil. Add to that the fact that the majority of soy grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered, which may have additional health consequences. When taken together, partially hydrogenated GE soybean oil becomes one of the absolute worst types of oils you can consume.

Years ago, tropical oils, such as palm and coconut oil, were commonly used in American food production. However, these are obviously not grown in the U.S., as with the exception of Hawaii, our climate isn’t tropical enough. Spurred by financial incentives, the industry devised a plan to shift the market from tropical oils to something more “home grown.”

As a result, a movement was created to demonize and vilify tropical oils in order to replace them with domestically grown oils such as corn and soy.

The fat in soybean oil is primarily omega-6 fat. And while we do need some omega-6, it is rare for anyone to be deficient in it, as it is pervasive in our diet. Americans in general consume FAR too much omega-6 in relation to omega-3 fat, primarily due to the excessive amount of omega-6 found in processed foods.

Omega-6 fats are in nearly every animal food and many plants, so deficiencies are very rare. This omega-6 fat is also highly processed and therefore damaged, which compounds the problem of getting so much of it in your diet. The omega-6 found in soybean oil promotes chronic inflammation in your body, which is an underlying issue for virtually all chronic diseases.

Even if you were fortunate enough to find organic soybean oil, there are still several significant concerns that make it far from attractive from a health standpoint. Soy in and of itself, organically grown or not, contains a number of problematic components that can wreak havoc with your health, such as:

• Goitrogens — Goitrogens, found in all unfermented soy whether it’s organic or not, are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism, thereby interfering with your thyroid function.

• Isoflavones: genistein and daidzein — Isoflavones are a type of phytoestrogen, which is a plant compound resembling human estrogen, which is why some recommend using soy therapeutically to treat symptoms of menopause. I believe the evidence is highly controversial and doubt it works.

  Typically, most of us are exposed to too many estrogen compounds and have a lower testosterone level than ideal, so it really is important to limit exposure to feminizing phytoestrogens. Even more importantly, there’s evidence it may disturb endocrine function, cause infertility and promote breast cancer, which is definitely a significant concern.

• Phytic acid — Phytates (phytic acid) bind to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc — all of which are co-factors for optimal biochemistry in your body. This is particularly problematic for vegetarians, because eating meat reduces the mineral-blocking effects of these phytates.

  Sometimes it can be beneficial, especially in postmenopausal women and in most adult men because we tend to have levels of iron that are too high, which can be a very potent oxidant and cause biological stress. However, phytic acid does not necessarily selectively inhibit just iron absorption; it inhibits all minerals. This is very important to remember, as many already suffer from mineral deficiencies from inadequate diets.

  The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume, and the phytates in soy are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans.

• Natural toxins known as “anti-nutrients” — Soy also contains other anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, protease inhibitors, and oxalates. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein. While a small amount of anti-nutrients would not likely cause a problem, the amount of soy that many Americans are now eating is extremely high.

• Hemagglutinin — Hemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together. These clumped cells are unable to properly absorb and distribute oxygen to your tissues.

The genetically engineered (GE) variety planted on over 90% of US soy acres is Roundup Ready — engineered to survive being doused with otherwise lethal amounts of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. The logic behind Roundup Ready crops such as soy is that you can decrease the cost of production by killing off everything except the actual soy plant.

However, animal studies reveal there may be significant adverse health effects from these GE soybeans, including progressively increased rates of infertility with each passing generation. By the third generation, virtually all the hamsters in one feeding study were found to be infertile. Second-generation hamsters raised on GE soy also had a fivefold higher infant mortality rate.

We now also have other Monsanto-made soy crops to contend with. Responding to the growing demand for healthier diets, Monsanto launched Vistive low-linolenic soybeans in 2005. Most soybeans contain roughly 7% linolenic acid. The new varieties contain 1% to 3%, which reduces the need for hydrogenation.4 As explained by Monsanto:5

“Farmers are not the only beneficiaries of Monsanto’s efforts … Consumers will also benefit from the healthier crops that could result, such as soybeans that are low in linolenic acid. Linolenic acid, a precursor to trans fats, may contribute to cardiovascular disease … Low-linolenic soybeans reduce the need for hydrogenation in food processing, helping to reduce the amount of trans fats in processed foods.”

Yet another soybean variety created by Monsanto is the high stearate soybean, which also has the properties of margarine and shortening without hydrogenation. But are these soybeans any better or safer than either conventional soybeans or Roundup Ready soybeans, even though they don’t have to go through partial hydrogenation, and therefore do not contain trans fat? No one knows.

I keep stacking health risks upon health risks, and here’s another one: Research has shown that soybean oil from Roundup Ready soy is loaded with glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup — the broad-spectrum herbicide created by Monsanto.

According to a report in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the highest MRL for glyphosate in food and feed products in the EU is 20 mg/kg. GE soybeans have been found to contain residue levels as high as 17 mg/kg, and malformations in frog and chicken embryos occurred at 2.03 mg/kg.6 That’s 10 times lower than the MRL.

This is an alarming finding because glyphosate is easily one of the world’s most overlooked poisons. Research published in 2010 showed that the chemical, which works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase that is necessary for plants to grow, causes birth defects in frogs and chicken embryos at far lower levels than used in agricultural and garden applications.7 The malformations primarily affected the:

• Skull

• Face

• Midline and developing brain

• Spinal cord

When applied to crops, glyphosate becomes systemic throughout the plant, so it cannot be washed off. And, once you eat this crop, the glyphosate ends up in your gut where it can decimate your beneficial bacteria. This can wreak havoc with your health, as 80% of your immune system resides in your gut (GALT, or Gut Associated Lymph Tissue) and is dependent on a healthy ratio of good and bad bacteria. Separate research has also uncovered the following effects from glyphosate:

• Endocrine disruption

• DNA damage

• Developmental toxicity

• Neurotoxicity

• Reproductive toxicity

• Cancer

If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. From there, use these tips to make sure you’re eating the right fats for your health:

• Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.

• Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.

• Be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, olive oil, olives, organic pastured eggs and raw nuts, especially macadamia nuts which are relatively low in protein. Also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

Following my comprehensive nutrition plan will automatically reduce your trans-fat intake, as it will give you a guide to focus on healthy whole foods instead of processed junk food.

Remember, virtually all processed foods will contain either HFCS (probably made from genetically engineered corn) and/or soybean oil — either in the form of partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which is likely made from GE soybeans, loaded with glyphosate, or from one of the newer soybean varieties that were created such that the y do not need to be hydrogenated. They’re ALL bad news, if you value your health.

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