Green Deen

Labels: expression, poem, student, youth

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By Karima Burns
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There is a famous Hadith reported by Abu Hurairah that, "Allah never inflicts a disease unless he makes a cure for it..." (Sahih Bukhari).

While some of us may assume that this cure is always in the form of a medicine or herbs, the Hadith does not state that. In fact, two of the greatest cures Allah has given us for heart disease are foods that the Prophet (SAW) ate: whole wheat and barley.

Both provide multiple benefits in the fight against heart disease as they both lower cholesterol, increase proper elimination of wastes by the body, facilitate proper blood clotting, and improve general circulation and cellular health.

When Sahl bin Sad was asked, "Did Allah's Apostle ever eat white flour?" he replied, "Allah's Apostle never saw white flour [from the time] Allah sent him as an Apostle till He took him unto Him."

Modern science has long been against processed breads, even when they are supposedly "enriched." E. Cheraskin, in his book Diet and Disease, compares enriching white flour with "robbing someone in a dark alley of their clothes and wallet, and then giving them back their underclothes and bus money to get home." In addition to the fact that white flour has no nutritional value, it can leech vitamins and minerals from the body as well. This is because nutrient-void foods do not supply all of the nutrients that are needed for their digestion; hence, they must take the nutrients that are lacking from the body. White flour can even mimic white sugar, creating problems for the hypoglycemic or diabetic person (Pritchard, Healing with Whole Foods).

According to nutritionists Jean Anderson and Barbara Deskin, whole-wheat flour, high in protein and fiber, is far superior in nutrition to white flour. Whole grain wheat contains a large amount of Vitamin E, mostly concentrated in its germ layer. Research on the Vitamin E found in wheat discovered that of 31,000 people studied, those who ate whole wheat bread had a much lower risk of heart disease than those who ate white bread. Michael H. Davidson, MD, president of the Chicago Center for Clinical Research, says that this is because the Vitamin E in wheat causes the liver to produce less cholesterol. He found that subjects in his study who consumed ½-cup of wheat germ daily for 14 weeks saw their cholesterol levels drop by seven percent.

Although wheat has undeniable health benefits, we need to be aware of the dangers of its overuse. Eaten daily, whole wheat can be detrimental to the health as it causes bloating in many people and often encourages the growth of unfriendly (candida albicanus) bacteria in the colon. It can also encourage weight gain and cause allergic reactions in many people when overeaten.

It is revealing that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) did not indulge in regular wheat consumption, but ate instead mostly barley and bread made from barley flour. Abu Hazim narrated (in Sahih Bukhari) that he asked the Prophet (SAW), "Did you use to sift barley flour?" The Prophet answered, "No, but we used to blow off the husk (of the barley)."

Barley is so easily digested that the Prophet even recommended that barley soup (talbiyah) be used for all stomach ailments (Sahih Bukhari). Possessing even more health benefits than wheat, barley is extremely high in calcium and protein, and is far less allergenic. It does not encourage bloating or unhealthy bacterial growth; therefore, while wheat is healthful, barley is better for daily consumption.

One of the richest sources of tocotrienols, powerful antioxidants that help reduce damage to the body from dangerous oxygen molecules called free radicals, barley also reduces the body's production of cholesterol in the liver. David Jenkins, MD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto says, “Tocotrienols are potentially more powerful antioxidants than other chemical versions of vitamin E.” Barley is also a lot more affordable than most vitamin E supplements on the market. Furthermore, it contains lignana, found to prevent tiny blood clots from forming – perhaps providing a similar benefit to the recently popular “daily dose of aspirin” against heart disease. Just one-half cup of barley contains half the daily requirement for selenium in the diet and almost twenty-percent of the USRDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of Vitamin E. Both of these have been found to be powerful allies in the fight against cancer.

Barley also contains beta-glucan, a type of soluble fiber that forms a gel in the small intestine to which cholesterol binds and is then excreted from the body. This gel forming action also prevents constipation and colon cancer.

To get barley's healing benefits, it is recommended by health experts that it be eaten in the same way that the Prophet (SAW) did. Hulled barley (the husk loosely intact or “blown off”) is superior to processed barley which has been cleaned and scrubbed more than five times to create a quicker-cooking version that lacks most of barley's healthful fiber, minerals and thiamin.

Karima Burns, MH, ND has a Doctorate in Naturopathy and a Masters in Herbal Healing. She has studied natural healing for 12 years, published a natural healing newsletter for 4 years, and writes extensively on natural healing and herbs. Sister Karima became interested in natural healing after ending her personal lifelong struggle with asthma, allergies, chronic ear infections, depression, hypoglycemia, fatigue and panic attacks with herbs and natural therapies.

Source.

Labels: fiber, health, medicine grains, nutrition, sunnah

Fourth, the findings are apparently based on very new and credible in situ measurements: "Semiletov said this year's expeditions used both chemical and geophysical measurement techniques, a first in the area."

The new data indicates the underwater permafrost is thawing and therefore releasing methane. Permafrost can affect methane release in two ways. Both underwater and on land, it contains frozen organic material such as dead plants and animals. When permafrost thaws, that organic material decomposes, releasing gases like methane and carbon dioxide. In addition, methane, either in gas form or in ice-like methane hydrates, is trapped underneath the permafrost. When the permafrost thaws, the trapped methane can seep out through the thawed soil. Methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, is thought to be an important factor in global climate change.

The East Siberian Arctic Shelf is a relatively shallow continental shelf that stretches more than 900 miles into the Arctic Ocean from Siberia. The area is a year-round source of methane to the globe's atmosphere. However, until recently, scientists believed that much of the area's carbon pool was safely insulated by underwater permafrost, which is, on average, 11 degrees Celcius warmer than surface permafrost.

Since 1994, Igor Semiletov of the Far-Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences "has led about 10 expeditions in the Laptev Sea but during the 1990s he did not detect any elevated levels of methane. However, since 2003 he reported a rising number of methane "hotspots," which have now been confirmed using more sensitive instruments." Why now?

Dr Semiletov has suggested several possible reasons why methane is now being released from the Arctic, including the rising volume of relatively warmer water being discharged from Siberia's rivers due to the melting of the permafrost on the land.

This, of course, would be an amplifying feedback of the very worst kind.

The Arctic region as a whole has seen a 4C rise in average temperatures over recent decades and a dramatic decline in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by summer sea ice. Many scientists fear that the loss of sea ice could accelerate the warming trend because open ocean soaks up more heat from the sun than the reflective surface of an ice-covered sea.

And, in fact, the NSIDC reported at the AGU that the early autumn Arctic was warming up thanks to the open ocean.

The time to act is January 20, 2009.

By Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor)

Labels: EWG, FDA, health EPA, Mercury, seafood, toxicity

Labels: controversy, Drs, vaccine

And the effects of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future. They’re happening right now. Signs are appearing all over, and some of them are surprising. The heat is not only melting glaciers and sea ice, it’s also shifting precipitation patterns and setting animals on the move.

Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.
• Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.

Read on here.

Labels: global warming, greenhouse gases, National Geographic

Voluntary simplicity may actually be the more accurate term since simple living should not be confused with having only the most basic necessities due to poverty. Simple living is a chosen lifestyle, and that choice may be based on a variety of issues. People who choose this lifestyle feel as if they get something out of it, not as if they are doing without.

Simple living means that every available resource is utilized in a way that makes the most of each one. For example, fruits and vegetables are planted and harvested and then that food is eaten for nourishment. Waste from that food such as peels, stems, and cores that are not eaten, can then be made into compost. The compost is used for fertilizer with which to grow more food. It becomes a cycle.

Simple living also has a spiritual aspect for some. People of many different faiths believe that they are to trust in their God to provide for their needs and that they are not intended to long for the trappings of the secular world.

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- In step with naming climate policy as one of his top priorities, President-elect Barack Obama is expected to soon officially designate his senior energy and environment cabinet officials, possibly next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Obama has vowed to rewrite the country's energy and environment policies, creating a low-carbon economy through strict regulation of greenhouse gases and shifting away from conventional fossil fuels to renewables, efficient and clean energy.

Transition officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said research portfolios for the Energy Secretary, Interior Secretary and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator designates had to be finalized by this Sunday. The Obama team is also still deliberating on who to appoint as head of the President's Council on Environmental Quality and whether that person should act as a special energy/climate change czar to oversee and coordinate Obama's policies between the different departments, or if a special position should be created.

As with his appointments, Obama is expected to announce the posts simultaneously.

None of the potential candidates could be reached for comment, and representatives of both the potential designates and the Obama transition team declined to comment.

People close to the Obama team said one of the top contenders for the energy secretary post is the former chairman of Edison International, John Bryson, one of the strongest advocates for moving the country's gasoline and diesel-driven vehicles to electric cars. Bryson has also served on the California Public Utilities Commission, and was a co-founder and attorney of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a powerful environmental lobby group with strong ties to Democrats.

With many of Obama's appointments coming from the public service, insiders say the president-elect's team wants to appoint an energy secretary from industry, and one with the gravitas to help steer the massive Department of Energy into a new green era. That's one of the reasons that Bryson, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm are now said to have pulled ahead in consideration in front of another contender, Dan Reicher, director of Google's climate change and energy initiatives division.

Sibelius recently won political kudos in the Democratic ranks for her successful prevention of a new coal-fired power plant approval in her state on the grounds that it would produce greenhouse gases.

The EPA Administrator in the new administration will play a much more powerful and influential role that previously, especially as the agency moves forward with drafting a rule to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The head of California's Air Resources Board Mary Nichols was originally a front-runner for the position, but since Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., took over the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - the panel that drafts climate change legislation - having a triumvirate of Californians crafting greenhouse gas regulations has hurt her chances. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D- Calif., is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee responsible for Senate climate bills. Some fear that legislation drafted by a California delegation wouldn't be able to get through Congress wary of the impacts on the entire economy.

New Jersey's former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Lisa Jackson, is now said by several people close to the transition team to be the top pick, though they say it's far from a done deal. Jackson was also one of the chief proponents of the regional greenhouse gas program, one of the first carbon dioxide cap-and-trade programs in the U.S.

World Resources Institute President Jonathan Lash was also a serious contender, but two insiders said he wouldn't be well received because of the perception of being too closely tied to environmental groups, and not enough experience with industry.

"Clearly he was and is a candidate, but industry will tend to say, that's an extreme choice, and that's not what Obama seemed to be about," said one person close to the transition team responsible for designate recommendations.

The Interior Department appointment will also be a strategic pick for Obama, especially as the debate over offshore drilling is expected to pick up in the new year, though oil prices down to 2005 levels have helped to erode the political urgency of the issue.

Two people close to the transition said the final two candidates are Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, whom Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is said to support, and Rep. Mike Thompson, a California Democrat whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wants in the post.

Although, historically, the Interior position in a Democratic administration has gone to an inter-mountain western state official, California has been a vociferous opponent of offshore drilling and a representative from that state would likely play hardball on new Outer Continental Shelf exploration.

Transition team insiders say there's no decision yet on whether to appoint a special energy/climate czar. "They don't know what the job would be," said one person close to the team. "They're talking about a climate change czar, an energy czar, and a national environmental council similar to the National Security Council," he said.

He added that Al Gore is lobbying hard for the White House to instead use the existing council on environmental quality, only strengthened to better coordinate policy between the agencies.

Source: CNN

Labels: health, HFCS, nutrtion, privitization, water crisis, water wars