Friday, October 10, 2008

Yoplait and rBGH Drama - Breast Cancer Cause

Yes, you read that title correctly! The Yoplait/rBGH drama is enough stress by itself to cause breast cancer! So here's the deal. I received a couple of emails from two different organizations. Here is one:

Dear Citizen Activist,
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and you may have already seen the ads touting Yoplait's campaign against breast cancer, called Save Lids to Save Lives .
The company plans to donate 10 cents to the fight against breast cancer for every cup of yogurt with with a pink foil lid that consumers purchase.
Yoplait touts its yogurt as being healthy for women, but what's inside is anything but.
The reality is that Yoplait yogurt is made with milk from cows that have been injected with a synthetic hormone called recombinant bovine growth hormone (called rBGH or rBST). Research indicates that there are numerous health concerns linked to the consumption of dairy from cows injected with rBGH - and breast cancer is one of them.
The bottom line is that rBGH is unsafe - and unnecessary. In fact, the use of rBGH has already been banned in Australia, Canada, Japan, and all 27 countries in the European Union. In addition to the many companies that offer rBGH-free products, big-box stores and food and beverage chains like Wal-Mart, Publix, Kroger, Starbucks, and Chipotle have committed to reducing or completely eliminating dairy products made with rBGH from their stores. If these companies can do it, Yoplait can too. In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in solidarity with millions of women, ask Yoplait to do the right thing and put a lid on rBGH.

Thanks for staying involved,
The Citizens for Health Team

So of course, I clicked on the button so that my "voice would be heard," and got this response from Yoplait:

Thank you for contacting General Mills concerning BST.

BST (bovine somatotropin) is a hormone naturally found in cows. The synthetic version of this hormone (not to be confused with a steroid hormone) has been subjected to extensive testing. The Food & Drug Administration, American Medical Association, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture along with a number of other science-based organizations have concluded that there are no food safety issues in conjunction with milk produced by BST-supplemented cows.

Because BST is naturally found in all cows′ milk, there is no scientific way to test the milk to determine if the BST present is from synthetic sources or natural sources. The amount of BST present in milk will not be greater from a synthetic source than it would be occurring naturally.

For more information about Bovine Somatotropin (BST) or Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) you may wish to visit the United States Department of Agriculture′s website at
www.usda.gov.

We hope you will continue to enjoy our products.

Sincerely,General Mills Consumer Services


In response to THEIR response, I received this in my inbox today:

YOPLAIT FOLLOW-UP!
Were you surprised to get a response from General Mills?
We weren't. It's just that their tidy little response was one that only a lawyer or a politician could love. As many of you pointed out to us, General Mills didn't even address the issue! If you go back and connect the dots, you'll see that our Action Alert was about rBGH, and General Mills' response was about BGH.
What's the difference between BGH and rBGH?
To reiterate, Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is a natural protein hormone produced in a cow's pituitary gland. Recombinant BGH (a/k/a rBGH) is a synthetic, unnatural hormone injected into the cow so she'll produce more milk - unnaturally!
Why did General Mills only mention BGH and not rBGH?
Because if General Mills dealt with rBGH straight up, they would have to acknowledge that it's banned in Canada, Australia, Japan and all 27 countries in the European Union. And Starbucks and Safeway stores in the northwest (among others) have voluntarily banned it in their products.
Why should you care?
Again, rBGH is not only synthetic; it also increases production of the hormone Insulin Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which in excessive amounts in humans beyond infancy is a cancer accelerator associated with breast, prostate and colon cancers.In lawyer-land, we call this kind of reply by General Mills sophistry, which is a fancy term for deceitful bull****. We need to make sophistry a thing of the past when it comes to the governance and business of our health.

So there it is in a nutshell. Don't buy into the Yoplait bullpoop. For years I've run from anything "pink" so this is no different for me. As a matter of fact, we only buy organic yogurt anyway, and raw yogurt 99% of the time. But I have not been pinkwashed, and every October I try to reach more converts. For more information, visit Think Before You Pink.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Eliminate Fear of Failure

Here is a great letter from Mike Brescia that I wanted to share because it came to me JUST after I realized these things on my own. Perhaps it will help someone learn much earlier what took me 37 years to learn!

Yesterday, I was asked by a client how he could get the stressors in his life to go away. He said that he was smart, talented, outgoing, hardworking and ambitious, but that he would frequently get overwhelmed with all the responsibilities and all the directions he was being pulled in each day.

I told him that his request is an unreasonable one.

The stressors -- responsibilities -- will not go away, nor should they.

Because to get rid of one, another one will probably, as if by magic, replace it.

This is a good thing, because no responsibilities means that you are either dead or a complete burden to others.

I told him to not wish them to be gone, but to give them new labels and meanings instead. Because when nothing on the outside can or should change, it is on the inside where the only good can be done.

Many parts of your life are literally about jobs, tasks, responsibilities... so when you can experience the joy built into each one of them, instead of seeing them as your curse, you will not feel any negative stress, even though nothing on the outside of you has changed at all.

Our duties are the DOINGS of our lives.

Without them, there is no life at all.

Even play is filled with tasks and duties and rules. What would our favorite games be without rules that all players must adhere to.

I told him that he must change the meaning that he gives to his chores in all areas of his life.

When he does this, what he calls stress will melt away.

He now calls them stressors...

So I told him to call them things he gets to do, vows, promises or pledges.

Instantly he felt great.

He said they didn't seem scary any more.

That is the power of labels. That is why people will work hard and long for a title even when no additional compensation (or any compensation at all) goes with it.

Now, of course, his emotional change was in the moment. And emotions can work quickly for you. But they can just as quickly turn negative again when your lifelong patterns get back in control...

And they WILL take over again even after profound emotional breakthroughs occur.

Life-long conditioning is what put our long-time fears in place. Conditioning over a lifetime is what makes us give the meanings we put on things.

To one person, a sunset is the most beautiful thing in the world, but to another it only means that a dreadful tomorrow is that much closer.

Those viewpoints weren't developed overnight.

Everyone has fears due to unsupportive meanings and viewpoints.

So when I myself feel less than some task I have before me, I now use 'Releasing Fear Of Failure Now!' to give me strength. When I read the words, and affirm to myself silently or out loud, I begin instantly to feel bigger, more capable. Smarter, even though I didn't grow smarter in seconds. Stronger, even though I am no stronger than I was moments before.

And the challenge (responsibility) seems smaller somehow, and easier.

The thing to remember is that nothing has any meaning except the meaning we give it.

And those meanings create emotions, which guide decisions.

To be free of fear and negative stress is to automatically-- without having to think -- view what is in front of you as a grain of sand that can be walked upon and passed by without conscious effort.

Do that and your life will be a smooth, enjoyable flow, no matter what "difficulty" or "deadline" you have in front of you.

'Releasing Fear Of Failure Now!' can do that for you.

It will internalize and condition into you empowering emotions relating to the things that frighten you and that stop you from living fully and being as adventurous as you once dreamed of being and still dream of being.

Fearlessly,

Mike Brescia

PS: The introductory 25% discount on 'Releasing Fear Of Failure Now!' is ending soon. You do not want to miss out on this remarkable price reduction!


I have purchased many of the Think Right Now! programs and can attest to their effectiveness. If everyone used these programs, there would be LOTS of useless books removed from circulation!