Skip to main content

French Fries Bad? Covid-19 Update, Pregnancy News

McDonald’s  is a great place, French fries in your face, ketchup up your nose, pickles between your toes.  Yes, that little diddy is still around.  I used to sing it to my kids every time we drove by a McDonald’s in town.  That being said, McDonald’s has made the news lately, Fox News specifically, for their French fries.  And it is not the good news, like the time they won a French fry popularity contest.  This time, the news gives us another reason to avoid eating at a fast food restaurant.  The French fries McDonald’s sells in the US are made with over a dozen different additives. The fries sold in the United Kingdoom are just potatoes fried in sunflower or rapeseed oil.  If McDonald’s can make a tasty French fry without preservatives, antifoaming agents, color stabilizers, TBHQ, and added flavorings for its British restaurants, why do they refuse to make them in the US?  More than 3,000 food additives are used in US food production, including infant foods and foods targeted to young children; many of which are banned in other countries due to health risks.  In addition, according to Dr. Joe Mercola, “to prevent potato necrosis, which causes dark spots and lines on the potatoes, McDonald’s potato farmers use a highly toxic pesticide called Monitor. This pesticide is so toxic, farmers will not enter their fields for five days after application.  Once harvested, the potatoes are kept in atmospheric-controlled warehouses for six weeks, during which time they are inedible. They're too toxic to consume before the chemical has sufficiently off-gassed from the potatoes! But does that mean that once off-gassed, the toxin is completely removed? No.  Overall, potatoes have among the highest levels of pesticide residues of any food crop.  In last year's pesticide testing done by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other fruit or vegetable. These chemicals penetrate the skin into the potato, making them impossible to wash off.

The point here is that the nature of the processed food industry drives chemical-heavy agriculture, which means many core ingredients are highly contaminated from the outset. So even if hazardous additives are not added to the food during processing, the food could still be a source of toxic exposure. That said, American junk food could be made to be a whole lot less hazardous than it currently is, simply by not adding extra junk into the mix during processing.”

Thought for the Week:  High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash. Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us? ~Annita Manning (Scottish television personality)

 Chiropractic Thought for the Week:  Using medical research on the nervous system and the spine, chiropractors have always pointed out the connection to heart health and spinal function.  Even with the research cited, I would always get a strange look or two when explaining to people the relationship to heart disease and spinal alignment, nerve dysfunction.  Now, new research is exclaiming that most heart disease resulting in heart attacks is less related to diet and more related to dysfunction in the electrical impulses to the heart from the parasympathetic (autonomic) nervous system.  This is exciting news for chiropractic, as maintaining normal spinal function in the thoracic (upper back) area may be another tool people can use, in addition to diet, exercise and stress management to help keep their heart healthy.

Pregnancy Prenatal Chiropractic Care info:  A new study found more than one in two young women between the ages of 20 and 44 who gave birth in the United States in 2019 had poor heart health before becoming pregnant, the study found. Poor heart health puts expectant mothers and their babies at risk, with heart disease causing more than one in four pregnancy-related deaths.  "Women with favorable heart health before pregnancy are less likely to experience complications of pregnancy and are more likely to deliver a healthy baby," said lead study author Dr. Natalie Cameron, an internal medicine specialist and instructor at Feinberg and a Northwestern Medicine physician. "Even more importantly, optimizing heart health before and during pregnancy can prevent the development of heart disease years later.  As per the research reported on above in my Chiropractic Thought for the Week, the benefits of prenatal chiropractic pregnancy care has just increased by one. Now, in addition to pregnancy pelvic alignment, round ligament relaxation and improved neural impulse flow to the uterus, chiropractic spinal adjustments stimulate nerve flow to the heart which aids in heart function performance.  As mentioned above, with proper prenatal diet and exercise, chiropractic’s value to pregnancy health is quite evident.

Covid-19 update:  March marks two years that I have been writing about the covid-19 pandemic.  I have addressed the etiology of the disease, the symptoms and the risk factors involved.  I have written about how to boost immune system function to decrease your risk of severe covid.  I have written about masks, vaccines and many other topics.  I have tried my best to stick by published science and interpret the facts for you.  I have written about many controversial topics that have come up over the last two years.  In light of the decreasing cases across the country and in our area, it is time for me to go back to what I have been doing weekly for the past 27 years And that concentrating on writing topics to help you be healthier.  Atlantic County has dropped from 442 covid cases to 326 cases in the last two week period.  At one point in December we hit a high of 13,000 cases in 14 days.  With a population of over 240,000 people in our county and only 326 cases over a two week period, it is safe to say that this virus has entered the endemic stage.  This basically means the virus has stabilized and it is at the point where it will be something we deal with on a regular basis (like the flu), but will not affect as many people. 

Here are my (possible) final thoughts on covid-19.  Please put an emphasis on immune system health.  Eat the right foods and take the necessary supplements that keep you healthy.  Exercise.  If the virus ends up having a “season” like the flu,  Protect yourself.  If you fit in the high risk category ( older age, pre-existing health conditions, overweight, vitamin D deficient) you need to do what you feel is necessary for your own health and safety.  If that is wearing a mask, self-isolating or getting a vaccine then by all means, do what you think is best to protect yourself.  The longer the virus stays around and continues to mutate, the virus will weaken.  It does that to stay alive.  It’s just what viruses do.  Like the flu, there will always be cases where covid-19 is worse in some than others.  There will be some who need hospitalization and unfortunately, like the flu, people may die.  And just like the flu, at times, severe cases of the covid virus may show up in people who do not fit the high risk categories. There is no explanation for this.  It happens.  It may have something to do with genetics, but it is not known.  As I said above the best course of action immune system health.  This means eating whole foods, making sure your vitamin D levels are normal.  Getting enough sleep and naturally, exercising.  People who take the time and make the effort to improve immune system function are healthier and are at a lower risk for suffering from severe cases of not only covid-19, but the flu, the common cold and many other of life’s illnesses.

Vaccine Liability:  President Biden claimed that gun manufacturers are the only industry in America that cannot be sued.  That is not true.  The National Childhood Vaccine Act of 1986 established the NVICP, and U.S. Supreme Court Decision, Russell Bruesewitz et al v. Wyeth et al, guaranteed vaccine manufacturers, doctors and other vaccine administrators almost always have no legal accountability or financial liability in civil court when a government-recommended or mandated vaccine(s) causes permanent injury or death.  And in the case of covid-19, for the next four years, pharmaceutical companies developing the Covid-19 vaccines will have immunity from liability under the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act.  According to the CDC Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, there have been over one million adverse covid-19 reactions reported.  200,331 have been listed as serious and 24, 827 deaths have been reported.  In the 5-11 year old range there have been 8,818 adverse reactions reported and 4 deaths.  The sad part about this age group is that they are least effected by covid-19 and a new study on the Pfizer vaccine has shown it is only 12% effective in that age group.  In contrast, the annual flu shot has a 40% effectiveness.  Children are at a higher risk of having a vaccine reaction then they are of having a serious case of covid-19

Author
Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.

You Might Also Enjoy...

Chiropractic Solutions for Back Pain Relief

Back pain is a major issue, but chiropractic care offers a non-invasive and effective solution for many. Chiropractor, Dr. J Zimmerman offers solutions for back pain utilizing chiropractic treatment for back pain relief.