News for Now Update: Week ending January 15, 2022

R.I.P. Clyde Bellecourt, Founder of the American Indian Movement
Clyde Bellecourt, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, an organization that he helped grow to represent 375 million Indigenous peoples worldwide, died in Minneapolis on Tuesday at the age of 85. “Today, we lost a civil rights leader who fought for more than a half century on behalf of Indigenous people in Minnesota and around the world. Indian Country benefited from Clyde Bellecourt’s activism – he cleared a path for so many of us,” Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan tweeted. Read more at NPR. Image: Jim Wells/Associated Press

Dangers of Ultra-Processed Foods
Today’s breakfast cereals, and particularly those targeting children, are replete with ultra-processed foods and sugar, linked to an increased risk of depression, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Plus, they contain hormone-disrupting additives. Read this Environmental Working Group story to get the facts and for links to their helpful Guide to Food Additives.

Reverse Modern Disease with “Food as Medicine”
In 1939, Weston A. Price, DDS published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a clarion call to the “civilized” world to embrace nutrient-dense foods raised in harmony with nature, and to abandon disease-causing processed foods and sugar of the Western diet. Since then, much of the world has been distracted by, and attracted to, inexpensive convenience foods, and modern disease has burgeoned. As the medical industrial complex sets out to solve our ills, we can also take our health into our own hands by embracing our ancestors’ “food as medicine” wisdom to reverse modern disease. Read more in The Guardian.

Improve Your Health With An Annual Food Audit
Health begins with an annual audit for The New York Times Opinion Section columnist David Leonhardt who recommends a practice of eating unprocessed foods, fresh produce, nuts, beans, fish, and some meat in the New Year. For more, plus smart nutrition tips to keep your COVID-19 risk factors in check, read the latest The New York Times Newsletter.

Dr. Pottenger, Sr. on the True Meaning of “Family Physician”
Do you feel that the practice of specialized medicine is impersonal? Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Sr., a family doctor proponent, felt the same way. In 1951, Dr. Pottenger offered suggestions that are more relevant today than ever. Read his paper on our website.