Monthly Archives: August 2010

Home-Grown Chickens Lay Healthy Eggs

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chickensMost people who are concerned about the quality of their food supply will have heard by now about the massive egg recall in the U.S. due to salmonella poisoning.

The Food and Drug Administration officials have said the recall stands at 550 million eggs, which originated at two factory farms in Iowa. A team of investigators is still trying to figure out what caused the contamination. An estimated 1,300 people have been made sick and the illness can be life-threatening, especially for those with weakened immune systems.

Eggs can be contaminated in two ways. Hens with infected ovaries can contaminate eggs before they’re laid, and the bacteria can penetrate the shell when a laid egg is exposed to fecal material.

The recall is bound to be good for sales of organic eggs, as well as for the organic and locavore movements in general. Anecdotal reports from farmers’ markets across the country suggest a spike in interest in eggs and other food from small farms as a direct result of the publicity surrounding the recall. And it’s sure to draw more people to the already popular backyard chicken movement.

Buying eggs directly from a farmer, or even growing your own is not a total guarantee that you will avoid contamination and illness. But it’s a good bet that chickens and their eggs (as well as other animal products) will be healthier and safer when they have regular exposure to the outdoors, eat naturally, aren’t cooped up in cages on top of one another, and not dosed with the antibiotics and vaccinations that industrial raised hens require.

We have been publishing articles for years in Natural Life Magazine about the problems with intensive factory farming – including the potential for the spread of diseases like this one, the resulting over-use of antibiotics, and the cruelty involved with caging animals.

But we like to provide positive information for our readers about how to live naturally. So here are a couple of articles from our archives about the positive aspects of keeping chickens – aside from the benefits of fresh, disease-free eggs.

Chickens in Your Backyard

The Multi-Function Chicken

Precaution Required With Electromagnetic Fields

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When Rolf and I, newly married in the early 1970s, were shopping for our first house, he was adamant that it wouldn’t be located near high tension power transmission lines. At the time, I humored him but didn’t give his concern much credence. Subsequently, as part of my research for various articles in Natural Life Magazine, I began to bump into research reports that supported his concern about chronic exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). And now that small electric appliances and electronic devices are ubiquitous, many of use are living in an electronic smog of low frequency radio waves. And there is more research being done into their effects.

In an article for Natural Life back in 2008, I wrote that the problem could include not just high power transmission lines, but cell phones, cordless phones, wireless internet service, baby monitors, dimmer switches, computer monitors, fluorescent light bulbs, halogen lights, radios, microwave ovens, and regular electrical wiring. These are all things that researchers now say can make some people ill with symptoms that can include nausea, headaches, asthma, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, tinnitus, brain fog, restless sleep and rashes. The illness is sometimes called electrohypersensitivity or EHS. And it may be just the tip of the iceberg, since new research indicates that exposure to EMF may cause damage at the cellular level.

So I was interested to read an article today reporting that some families think their kids are being made sick by Wi-Fi in their elementary schools. Unfortunately, the school board is behaving a bit like I did back in the early ‘70s and disregarding these parents’ concerns. That is in spite of evidence that EMF, like many other harmful things, is a bigger threat to children due to their small size and immature brains and immune systems. At least one of the parents is suggesting he’ll homeschool his children this year unless the Wi-Fi is turned off in favor of regular connectivity.

The anecdotal evidence the parents have presented, as well as the formal research into the problem, should lead the school board to practice the Precautionary Principle: If a policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.

ADHD Diagnosis Linked to Diet

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Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the descriptive label given to an ever-increasing number of children – especially boys – who have trouble fitting into the school system and disrupt family life. Complaints about their behavioral “problems” include hyperactivity, poor attention span, lack of concentration, disruptiveness, clumsiness, recklessness, defiance, and irritability. 

As I wrote in my Ask Natural Life column in 2006, the label has become a disorder recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. And the remedy is often the stimulant Ritalin, prescriptions for which have risen by something like six hundred percent. At best, Ritalin treats the symptoms and not the problem. At worst, it is a habit-forming amphetamine.

I believe that the ADHD diagnosis problematizes and medicalizes the behavior of active, normal children within classroom situations that don’t suit their learning needs. However, researchers have been finding that hyperactive behavior in children can also be caused by nutritional imbalances and environmental pollution.

Research in recent years has focused on prenatal exposures to agents such as lead, cigarette byproducts and alcohol. High levels of lead in the blood are known to cause aggression, poor impulse control and short attention span. Studies have also found links between high levels of copper and aluminum and hyperactivity symptoms. Other research suggests that PCBs may also cause hyperactivity or contribute to the changes in brain function that characterize ADHD diagnoses.

The negative behavior and health effects of synthetic food additives – artificial colorings and flavorings, as well as aspartame and preservatives like BHA and BHT –  on certain sensitive people was documented thirty years ago by the late Dr. Benjamin Feingold in his book Why Your Child is Hyperactive. According to research cited by the Feingold Association, children diagnosed with ADHD are seven times more likely to have food allergies than other children. Foods most likely to cause allergic reactions include food colorings, flavorings, synthetic additives, wheat, dairy products, corn, yeast, soy, citrus, chocolate, peanuts, eggs and foods containing salicylates.

And now, a new study out of Australia published in the Journal of Attention Disorders suggests that our modern junk food diet heightens the risk of ADHD in kids. Scientists from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth looked at the diets of 1,800 teens involved in an ongoing long-term health study. They classified the participants’ diets into two categories, “Western” and “Healthy,” with a “Healthy Diet” being one high in fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and fish. They found the Western diet was associated with more than double the risk of having an ADHD diagnosis, compared to other ways of eating. Foods in the Western diet included takeout and fast foods, processed meats, red meat, high fat dairy products, and candy.