Clementine Art, the natural alternative to toxic art supplies

(NaturalNews) Paints, glues, crayons, markers: many of these things purchased conventionally contain artificial chemical dyes, petrochemicals and other unknown ingredients, despite bearing a non-toxic label. Millions of children use such art supplies every day in preschool, art class and at home, and are unwittingly exposed to unknown levels of contaminants. Fortunately, there is a safe alternative.

Diana Mercer is a teacher of young children in art and founder of Clementine Art, a natural children's art supply company. For many years, she has helped children express their creative intuitions through art, but became concerned over what hidden ingredients might be lurking in the supposed non-toxic art supplies she was using. She began to create her own art supplies from the natural ingredients in her kitchen as an alternative, which eventually birthed into Clementine Art.

Today, the company produces truly natural, non-toxic modeling dough, glue, crayons, paints, crayons and markers. All of the products are certified non-toxic, environmentally-friendly and free of artificial colors and dyes. Unlike conventional brands, Clementine Art products bear full ingredient labels that disclose every ingredient.

Clementine's modeling dough, for example, is composed of simple ingredients like flour and water, similar to what is found in natural baked bread. The dough is colored using natural foods like turmeric, carmine, annatto and spinach, and is scented using natural scents like strawberry, lemon and lime.

Similarly, Clementine's natural paints are colored using earth-based, non-toxic mineral pigments, as are the company's markers and crayons. All of these contain absolutely no chemical dyes or other artificial additives.

"Clementine's creamy, natural crayons are made from kosher soy wax and mineral pigments. Conventional crayons are made from paraffin wax, a petroleum product," explains Mercer about the superiority of her crayons. "The use of soy in our product is better for your child's health and better for the environment since soy is a sustainable crop."

Clementine also makes soy-based crayon rocks which were designed by an early childhood educator to encourage motor and writing skills in small children. Their unique design facilitates young children in learning how to shade, draw lines and mix colors.

Clementine Art also makes a safe, non-toxic glue that is composed of natural bio-polymers rather than animal adhesives. It will not cause harm to a child if ingested, and like the other Clementine products, it contains no artificial colors or dyes.

Mercer truly believes in her products and is enthusiastic about being able to provide a safe alternative for children. "Clementine Art products help to develop your child's creative voice. Our unique, engaging and natural art supplies will inspire your children naturally and safely," she says.

To learn more about Clementine Art, please visit www.clementineart.com.

Bodies of pregnant women polluted with chemicals found in consumer products

(NaturalNews) Every pregnant woman's body is probably contaminated with multiple toxic substances, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Washington Toxics Coalition, the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center and the Toxic-Free Legacy Coalition.

"This study reveals that children spend their first nine months in an environment that exposes them to known toxic chemicals," said study author Erika Schreder. "Pregnant women can't avoid every exposure to these chemicals because they are in so many products. ... We need policies that keep toxic chemicals away from pregnant women and the most vulnerable -- the developing fetus."

Researchers analyzed the blood and urine of nine pregnant women and found that all of them tested positive for mercury, bisphenol-A (BPA), at least four phthalates, and two to four perfluorinated compounds.

All four substances are known to build up in human bodies and the environment. Mercury damages the nervous system, while the others interfere with the hormonal system and can produce a wide array of diseases and defects. Developing infants are especially vulnerable to damage by these toxins.

"The developing fetus is exquisitely vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals," the Washington Toxics Coalition said. "The fetus develops at a breakneck pace in the womb, and that development is easily derailed by toxic chemicals. The fetus also has a very limited ability to detoxify foreign chemicals. With chemicals like bisphenol A and the others in our tests passing easily through the placenta, there is cause for grave concern about their impacts on fetal development."

BPA is used to make hard, clear plastics, dental sealants and composites, and the liners of food containers. Phthalates are used to soften plastic and are found in everything from infant products to medical equipment. Perfluorinated compounds, also called "Teflon chemicals," are used to make nonstick cookware and certain outdoor products.

The researchers recommend that people reduce their exposure to toxic chemicals by looking for products certified BPA and phthalate free, avoiding flame retardant products, and purchasing certified organic body care products.

Of more than 80,000 chemicals used in manufacturing consumer products, only 200 or so have ever undergone safety testing.

Sources for this story include: www.organicconsumers.org; www.watoxics.org.

Sara Lee accused of greenwashing marketing hype with its "EcoGrain" bread

(NaturalNews) The Sara Lee company stands accused today of engaging in blatant greenwashing through its highly misleading marketing of its new "EcoGrain" bread.

The Cornucopia institute has released news describing how this product line by Sara Lee is made with "toxic agrochemicals" even though it's being marketed as better than organic.

The full statement from the Cornucopia Institute follows (www.Cornucopia.org)

Sara Lee greenwashing reaches new lows with EcoGrain bread

With the growing success of organics, and increasing consumer interest in buying foods that were grown on sustainable farms without toxic chemicals, Sara Lee Corporation has launched, with much fanfare, a marketing campaign for its Earthgrains bread, chock-full of environmental-friendly catchphrases.

Sara Lee claims that "Eco-Grain™," an ingredient actually used in small proportions in its Earthgrains brand breads, is more sustainable than organic grain. What has been described as a "crass and exploitive marketing ploy" has angered many in the organic community.

"Corporations like Sara Lee clearly want to profit from consumers' interest in ecological and healthy food production. But unlike organic companies, Sara Lee is doing practically nothing to ensure its ingredients are truly ecologically produced," said Charlotte Vallaeys, a Food and Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based organic industry watchdog. "It's a crass example of a corporation trying to capitalize on the valuable market cachet of organic, while intentionally misleading consumers -- without making any meaningful commitment to protect the environment or produce safer and more nutritious food."

Not exactly organic

The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group, points out that the farmers who grow Eco-Grain differ very little from most conventional grain producers who use petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides, and have little in common with certified organic farmers.

The one attribute that Sara Lee uses to differentiate Eco-Grain production is that the farmers, although they use chemical fertilizers, incorporate technology that has reduced fertilizer usage by 15%. In contrast, as mandated by federal law, organic farmers are required by law to reduce their synthetic fertilizer use by 100%.

Organic farmers use natural fertilizers, compost and crop rotations to enrich the long-term health of the soil, without damaging the environment or potentially contaminating the food produced.

However, Cornucopia's Vallaeys points out that, "Even if their new fancy wheat were truly superior, each Earthgrains 24 ounce loaf contains only 20% flour from Eco-Grain, with the remainder of the bread's wheat coming from regular, conventional wheat. The total reduction in chemical fertilizer use in a loaf of EarthGrains bread therefore amounts to a meager 3%."

"Even though they've done a countrywide media rollout, including underwriting spots on National Public Radio, Sara Lee is, in essence, playing a shell game," said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector at The Cornucopia Institute. "Even as they had the audacity to promote a bread with just 20% of their 'value added' wheat, the rest of their product line has 0% content of the Eco-Grain. If advertising executives could be charged with malpractice, this would be a major felony," Kastel said.

Demand for Sara Lee to halt the deceptive advertising

The Cornucopia Institute has written to the CEOs of both Sara Lee and NPR requesting that the "misleading and unethical" packaging and advertising campaign, and associated advertising and underwriting, be immediately suspended while the corporations investigate their propriety.

In addition to the organic prohibition against chemical fertilizers, federal regulations also prohibit organic farmers from using toxic pesticides that are commonly applied to conventional wheat fields, including those growing "Eco-Grain."

One such pesticide typically used in conventional wheat production is 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), which EPA researchers have correlated with numerous birth defects of the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as defects like clubfoot, fused digits and extra digits. Other research has linked the use of toxic pesticides on wheat fields to increased cancer mortality rates.

And, in addition to chemical fertilizers and pesticides, conventional wheat farmers sometimes use synthetic fungicides and other chemicals to treat their fields.

"For Sara Lee to claim that their wheat is ecologically grown and sustainable, when they appear to make no effort to reduce or eliminate their use of toxic pesticides, that have terrible effects on the environment and public health, is highly disingenuous," says Nathan Jones, who grows organic wheat in King Hill, Idaho and chairs the Organic Advisory Board of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

In addition to shunning toxic agrochemicals, organic farmers are required to improve the long-term health of their soil, and increase biodiversity on their farms.

"Unfortunately, this is another example of a major agribusiness trying to blur the line between products labeled 'organic' and 'natural'," stated Kastel, who acts as Cornucopia's Senior Farm Policy Analyst. "It seems that some corporations, like Sara Lee, appear more interested in corporate profit and greenwashing than true environmental stewardship, and are doing everything they can to take advantage of this confusion among consumers," Kastel added.

"The term 'natural' on products like bread is not regulated by state or federal government," says Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition at New York University. "Companies that use the term 'all natural' essentially come up with their own definition."

In addition, some of Sara Lee's other bread ingredients, such as soy oil and soy lecithin, are grown and processed using genetic engineering and chemical extraction with the toxic solvent hexane, both technologies that are banned in organic production.

In online marketing materials, Sara Lee even claims that farming methods used to produce its "100% Natural" bread "have some advantages over organic farming." They cite only one ecological advantage, claiming that organic farmers require more land than conventional growers.

"This claim does not hold up against recent scientific data," said Alison Grantham, Research Manager at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, an agricultural research, education and outreach group. "Long-term trials, such as our nearly 30-year-old Farming Systems Trial, show long-term average organic farming systems' crop yields match conventional farming system yields, and that the improvements in soil health achieved by organic management actually support higher yields during droughts."

"I just can't believe that Sara Lee would claim to be more sustainable than organic bakers like me," affirms Daniel Leader, a certified organic bread baker and owner of Bread Alone Bakery in the Hudson Valley, New York. "In deference to my customers, I've made an investment in real sustainability by going organic, and for Sara Lee to tarnish the good name of organics, and even claim to be superior to organic bread, is simply unacceptable." Bread Alone Bakery is certified by the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, a certifier accredited by the USDA.

Sara Lee's longtime ad jingle campaign doesn't seem to be ringing true for organic farmers, bakers and consumers -- "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee." It will remain to be seen whether spending more money on marketing and advertising than on Eco-Grain itself will pay off for the agribusiness giant.

For more information on the difference between Earthgrains bread and organic bread, The Cornucopia Institute has prepared a fact sheet, available at http://www.cornucopia.org/eco-grain...

The Earthgrains/Eco-Grain investigation is the first in a series of Natural Versus Organic profiles that The Cornucopia Institute will be issuing in 2010.

The campaign is intended to empower consumers and wholesale buyers with marketplace knowledge so that they can make good, discerning purchasing decisions -- providing their families and customers with truly superior food that pays dividends for human health, the environment and society.

Chlorophyll blocks absorption of toxic carcinogens

(NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) has found that chlorophyll works effectively to block bodily absorption of aflatoxin, a fungal contaminant found in many grain and legume stocks. Research participants who were given chlorophyll alongside aflatoxin did not absorb the carcinogen as readily as those who were given only aflatoxin.

Published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, the study utilized a new, state-of-the-art assessment method called "Phase 0" which essentially evaluates the effects of carcinogens by administrating them in safe micro-doses. Praised by researchers as a breakthrough testing procedure, Phase 0 utilizes an accelerator mass spectrometer that is able to measure minute variations of toxic exposure and assess toxicity levels down to the smallest increments.

Many developing countries around the world have food supplies that are tainted with high levels of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is implicated in causing problems in the liver, including liver cancer. George Bailey, an OSU scientist who has studied aflatoxin exposure in China, found that in one region ten percent of inhabitants die from aflatoxin-induced liver cancer.

Using Phase 0 technology, researchers were able to determine that aflatoxin is absorbed very rapidly by the body once ingested. In the presence of chlorophyll, however, aflatoxin is prevented from entering the bloodstream and quickly eliminated from the system. Supplementation with chlorophyll and chlorophyllin, its derivative, may reduce the number of cases of liver cancer.

Researchers hope to conduct further research in order to better understand logistically how chlorophyll works to block aflatoxin absorption.

Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Here's yet more evidence showing the importance of including fresh, raw plants in your diet. Chlorophyll protects you from other dietary toxins and can theoretically even save you from liver cancer.

Chlorophyll offers a lot more benefits as well: It cleanses your blood and helps detoxify your liver, colon and entire digestive tract.

Modern medicine, of course, has utterly failed to recognize any use for chlorophyll whatsoever. But followers of raw living foods understand very well how important chlorophyll is to human health.

What are the best sources? One of the best is parsley juice. Grow your own parsley (or buy it in a store), then juice it with some other fruits and vegetables to make a chlorophyll-rich, highly-nutritious beverage!

Sources for this story include:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea...