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Social norms, lack of support may keep many African American moms from breastfeeding
URBANA, Ill. – While completing her Master of Public Health capstone project at the Champaign Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) breastfeeding program, a University of Illinois researcher noticed a disparity: fewer African American women were asking for breastfeeding support.
Julia Kim, a doctoral student in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at U of I began to study previous research on the demographics of women who tend to breastfeed and the disparity was confirmed. Although breastfeeding rates have increased for African American women over the years, the literature shows that African American moms are less likely to start and continue breastfeeding than mothers of other ethnicities.
In a study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Kim and other researchers explore possible barriers that keep African American mothers from choosing to breastfeed or to continue breastfeeding. For the women involved with the study, barriers were less about knowing the benefits of breastfeeding and more about the perceived social norms and limited social support for breastfeeding within their communities.
"It's important to support African American moms in breastfeeding so their children, and all ethnicities of children, have that same nutritional advantage—to start on the same playing field, nutritionally speaking.
"Breastfed babies are less likely to get ear infections and they have fewer respiratory tract infections. Nutrition from the start is very important. For example, although not as strong, there is some research that shows that breastfeeding can reduce childhood obesity, and if you're less likely to be obese as a child, you're less likely to be obese as an adult."
Sharon Donovan, a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at U of I says an important part of the study is that it highlights the significance of cultural norms as a barrier for African American moms when it comes to breastfeeding.
"This is also a broader problem when you have women kicked out of a store or business for breastfeeding, or when women are breastfeeding in the park and people confront them for exposing their breast or that they are doing something wrong. The United States, in general, is still not a very breastfeeding-supportive country compared to many other countries, such as in Europe, that have higher breastfeeding rates. It seems to be even more punctuated in the African American community."
For the study, Kim interviewed and surveyed African American women in Champaign County who were first-time breast feeders and who were in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). She focused on women enrolled in WIC because, as she explains, research has shown WIC participants are less likely to breastfeed than mothers who qualify but do not receive WIC because the program provides infant formula to moms of infants. Kim hoped to hear about what made the choice to breastfeed difficult or easy for them.
WIC does offer education and support for breastfeeding moms, Kim says, through programs such as support groups and hotlines for moms to ask questions. These types of programs were available in the WIC clinic at CUPHD she observed for the study.
From the interviews and surveys, several themes emerged, including beliefs about maternal nutrition while breastfeeding, time and costs related to breastfeeding, the need for social support and female role models, and suboptimal support from institutions (hospitals, schools, workplace, and the community).
Kim says what made it easier for moms to choose to breastfeed was that they knew of the health benefits for the baby and they liked providing for the baby. "Many moms liked that they were the sole source or provider for the baby," she says. "They liked being depended on, they felt needed."
But not having support from their social network or having it feel "abnormal" to breastfeed in their community was a common barrier cited by the moms.
One mom in the study had not breastfed her first two children, but was successful with her third.
"This was an interesting case because with her first two children she was opposed to breastfeeding because her surrounding environment that she lived in was very formula dominant. Nobody told her it was healthy for the baby, and even if they did, she said she just dismissed it because she was so adamant about formula feeding. She thought breastfeeding was awkward. She said, 'My mom didn't do that.'" But with her third child, she had support from the father and his family, which made it easier for her, Kim adds.
But some women reported that they did not have the support of their babies' fathers.
"It can take a lot of the mom's time to breastfeed, so maybe that's part of the men's perception," Donovan says. "'If she's spending her time breastfeeding then she doesn't have time for me.'"
Kim adds that for the women in the study, men and their mothers were their main support system. "Not only is it important to educate the mom who is breastfeeding, but educating their family members and cousins and sisters. There is a whole social network that we need to target. I think men in this population are very important, whether they live together or not. Many times the men would say negative comments to the moms. Small negative comments can add up and make it harder for the moms to continue breastfeeding."
Barbara Fiese, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at U of I stresses the importance of support from family members. "Even if they don't live in the same house, this can have a powerful effect on how long the mother continues to breastfeed beyond the first few weeks," she says.
A misconception that came up in interviews was the moms' belief that to breastfeed, women have to eat "healthy," and that it is expensive to buy healthier foods. "That's [needing to eat healthy to breastfeed] not necessarily true, though," Kim says.
"Nutrition is important, but likely it's these other immune components and other protective components that come from the mother that help to reduce some of the GI and ear infections, those types of things that you cannot really mimic with infant formula," Donovan says. "We don't want women to have this perception that they're not eating healthy so they can't make healthy milk for their infants."
Donovan adds that to be successful in supporting all women who choose to breastfeed, there must be a reshaping of the whole culture to be more supportive of the practice. "We also need to identify populations that are at particular risk and design interventions and education that is culturally appropriate and age appropriate. It's part of a bigger nut that we need to crack. Culture is definitely a part of it."
The paper, "Breastfeeding is natural but not the cultural norm: A mixed-methods study of first-time breastfeeding, African American mothers participating in WIC," is published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Co-authors are Julia H. Kim, Barbara H. Fiese and Sharon M. Donovan.
The study was funded by the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as part of the AFRI Childhood Obesity Prevention Challenge.


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« 檜瞪啗樓 »
HE leading purpose of the British government in the campaign of 1777 was the same as that with which it had begun in 1776, - the control of the line of the Hudson and Lake Champlain, to be mastered by two expeditions, one starting from each end, and both working towards a common centre at Albany, near the head of navigation of the River. Preliminary difficulties had been cleared away in the previous year, by the destruction of the American flotilla on the Lake, and by the reduction of New York. To both these objects the Navy had contributed conspicuously. It remained to complete the work by resuming the advance from the two bases of operations secured. In 1777 the fortifications on the Hudson were inadequate to stop the progress of a combined naval and military expedition, as was shown in the course of the campaign. The northern enterprise was intrusted to General Burgoyne. The impossibility of creating a new naval force, able to contend with that put afloat by Carleton, had prevented the Americans from further building. Burgoyne therefore moved by the Lake without opposition to Ticonderoga, before which he appeared on the 2d of July. A position commanding the works was discovered, which the Americans had neglected to occupy. It being seized, and a battery established, the fort had to be evacuated. The retreat being made by water, the British Lake Navy, under Captain Skeffington Lutwidge, with whom Nelson had served a few years before in the Arctic seas, had a conspicuous part in the pursuit; severing the boom blockading the narrow upper lake and joining impetuously in an attack upon the floating material, the flat-boat transports, and the few relics of Arnold's flotilla which had escaped the destruction of the previous year. This affair took place on the 6th of July. From that time forward the progress of the army was mainly by land. The Navy, however, found occupation upon Lake George, where Burgoyne established a dépôt of supplies, although he did not utilise its waterway for the march of the army. A party of seamen under Edward Pellew, still a midshipman, accompanied the advance, and shared the misfortunes of the expedition. It is told that Burgoyne used afterwards to chaff the young naval officer with being the cause of their disaster, because he and his men, by rebuilding a bridge at a critical moment, had made it possible to cross the upper Hudson. Impeded in its progress by immense difficulties, both natural and imposed by the enemy, the army took twenty days to make twenty miles. On the 30th of July it reached Fort Edward, forty miles from Albany, and there was compelled to stay till the middle of September.
Owing to neglect at the War Office, the peremptory orders to Sir William Howe, to move up the Hudson and make a junction with Burgoyne, were not sent forward. Consequently, Howe, acting upon the discretionary powers which he possessed already, and swayed by political reasons into which it is not necessary to enter, determined to renew his attempt upon Philadelphia. A tentative advance into New Jersey, and the consequent manoeuvres of Washington, satisfied him that the enterprise by this route was too hazardous. He therefore embarked fourteen thousand men, leaving eight thousand with Sir Henry Clinton to hold New York and make diversions in favor of Burgoyne; and on the 23d of July sailed from Sandy Hook, escorted by five 64-gun ships, a 50, and ten smaller vessels, under Lord Howe's immediate command. The entire expedition numbered about 280 sail. Elaborate pains were taken to deceive Washington as to the destination of the armament; but little craft was needed to prevent a competent opponent from imagining a design so contrary to sound military principle, having regard to Burgoyne's movements and to the well-understood general purpose of the British ministry. Accordingly Washington wrote, "Howe's in a manner abandoning Burgoyne is so unaccountable a matter, that till I am fully assured of it, I cannot help casting my eyes continually behind me." He suspected an intention to return upon New York. On the 31st of July, just as Burgoyne reached Fort Edward, where he stuck fast for six weeks, Howe's armament was off the Capes of the Delaware. The prevailing summer wind on the American coast is south-south-west, fair for ascending the river; but information was received that the enemy had obstructed the channel, which lends itself to such defences for some distance below Philadelphia. Therefore, although after occupying the city the free navigation of the river to the sea would be essential to maintaining the position, —for trial had shown that the whole army could not assure communications by land with New York, the other sea base, — Howe decided to prosecute his enterprise by way of the Chesapeake, 'the ascent of which, under all the conditions, could not be seriously impeded. A fortnight more was consumed in contending against the south-west winds and calms, before the fleet anchored on the 15th of August within the Capes of the Chesapeake; and yet another week passed before the head of the Bay was reached. On the 25th the troops landed. Washington, though so long in doubt, was on hand to dispute the road, but in inferior force; and Howe had no great difficulty in fighting his way to Philadelphia, which was occupied on the 26th of September. A week earlier Burgoyne had reached Stillwater, on the west bank of the Hudson, the utmost point of his progress, where he was still twenty miles from Albany. Three weeks later, confronted by overwhelming numbers, he was forced to capitulate at Saratoga, whither he had retreated. Lord Howe held on at the head of the Chesapeake until satisfied that his brother no longer needed him. On the 14th of September he started down the Bay with the squadron and convoy, sending ahead to the Delaware a small division, to aid the army, if necessary. The winds holding southerly, ten days were required to get to sea; and outside further delay was caused by very heavy weather. The Admiral there quitted the convoy and hastened up river. On the 6th of October he was off Chester, ten miles below Philadelphia. The navy had already been at work for a week, clearing away obstructions, of which there were two lines; both commanded by batteries on the farther, or Jersey, shore of the Delaware. The lower battery had been carried by troops; and when Howe arrived, the ships, though meeting lively opposition from the American galleys and fire-rafts, had freed the channel for large vessels to approach the upper obstructions. These were defended not only by a work at Red Bank on the Jersey shore, but also, on the other side of the stream, by a fort called Fort Mifflin, on Mud Island." As the channel at this point, for a distance of half a mile, was only two hundred yards wide, and troops could not reach the island, the position was very strong, and it detained the British for six weeks. Fort Mifflin was supported by two floating batteries and a number of galleys. The latter not only fought, offensively and defensively, but maintained the supplies and ammunition of the garrison. On the 22d of October, a concerted attack, by the army on the works at Red Bank, and by the Navy on Fort Mifflin, resulted disastrously. The former was repulsed with considerable loss, the officer commanding being killed. The squadron, consisting of a 64, three frigates, and a sloop, went into action with Mud Island at the same time; but, the channel having shifted, owing possibly to the obstructions, the sixty-four and the sloop grounded, and could not be floated that day. On the 23d the Americans concentrated their batteries, galleys, and fire-rafts upon the two; and the larger ship took fire and blew up in the midst of the preparations for lightening her. The sloop was then set on fire and abandoned. So long as this obstacle remained, all supplies for the British army in Philadelphia had to be carried by boats to the shore, and transported considerable distances by land. As direct attacks had proved unavailing, more deliberate measures were adopted. The army built batteries, and the navy sent ashore guns to mount in them; but the decisive blow to Mud Island was given by a small armed ship, the Vigilant, 20, which was successfully piloted through a channel on the west side of the river, and reached the rear of the work, towing with her a floating battery with three 24-pounders. This was on the 15th of November. That night the Americans abandoned Fort Mifflin. Their loss, Beatson says, amounted to near 400 killed and wounded; that of the British to 43. If this be correct, it should have established the invincibility of men who under such prodigious disparity of suffering could maintain their position so tenaciously. After the loss of Mud Island, Red Bank
* This was just below the mouth of the Schuylkill, a short distance below the present League Island navy yard.

subset: commoncrawl


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3 Reasons Craft Brewers Should Invest in a Quality Packaging System
It's more than apparent Americans love a good craft beer by the unprecedented growth this industry is experiencing. What started as a single batch, manual hobby in someone's garage or basement, is turning into a thriving, labor intense business for many craftsmen. Once brewers are unable to manually keep up with production, there are automatic bottle case packing options available to them.
Space Constraints One of the most troublesome steps in packing bottles is erecting the four or six pack carriers and then having somewhere to put them until you are ready to pack. There are machines that will automatically form the carrier and even insert the carrier into a formed corrugated shipping case, like Combi's BCF and BrewPack. These machines differ by speed and functionality but are the first step to automating a packaging line.
Labor Savings Your budget isn't ready for full automation? A semi-automatic hand pack station performs several functions simultaneously. Bottles feed into the machine on a product conveyor as shipping cases and carriers are being formed. Several operators manually pack bottles into the cases which are then fed into an automatic case sealer. The operators never touch a carrier or case, so you can eliminate those Saturday night pack parties.
Increased Throughput If you are producing in excess of 2,000 barrels of beer a year, a full end of line packaging system will increase your throughput and reduce your labor costs. Methods for automatically packing bottles and cans of beer vary by speed and methods of packing. Each lends its own unique characteristics to case packing and a qualified packaging specialist can recommend the right solution for your brewery. You can read about two different systems case packing at different speeds by visiting the BrewPack SPP and high speed BCF DP SPP web pages.
Did we catch your interest? We have packaging specialists across the US that are available to visit your facility, free and under no obligation, to discuss your automation needs.
Call us at 800-521-9072 or request a quote through our website.


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This week on Terrainforma we give you the run-down on the eviction of La Puya In Guatemala, the usefulness of Science-Fiction beyond your basic entertainment value, and how to make a tasty meal out of those cattails that would otherwise be sittin' pretty.
Impacts of Resource Extraction on First Nations Communities
Today Erin Konsmo of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network tells us about the effects of pollution on the reproductive health of First Nations communities. We've got a review of To the Last Drop, a film about the impact of the Athabasca tar sands on downstream communities. And to round things off we have excerpts of a talk by Lesbia Morales of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands on Mayan resistance to mining in Guatemala — mining which is done mainly by Canadian companies.
Erin Konsmo
This week we're excited to be kicking off a new segment on youth and environmental justice. I was fortunate enough to speak with Erin Konsmo of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, an organization by and for Indigenous youth that works within the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice across the United States and Canada. Oftentimes pollution is thought of as impacting the land and the water but what about the impacts that pollution, industry, contaminants and environmental degradation have on nearby communities and individuals and their sexual and reproductive health? And why is this critical for environmentalists to learn more about? What is environmental violence and how are communities defining, responding to and resisting environmental violence? Here is my interview with Erin.
More on this story: Report on "The 2nd Declaration For Health, Life and Defense of Our Lands, Rights and Future Generations" (PDF)
To The Last Drop
In our latest Green Screen Movie Review, we take a look at "To The Last Drop", a film that focuses on the impacts that the tar sands industry is having on the downstream community of Fort Chipewyan.
More on this story: Watch "To The Last Drop" on Aljazeera's website, read the Indigenous Environmental Network's report "Risking Ruin: Shell's Dangerous Developments in the Tar Sands, Arctic and Nigeria" (PDF)
Lesbia Morales
On Friday, June 1, Lesbia Morales spoke to a crowded room in the Stanley Milner Library in downtown Edmonton. Morales had traveled from Guatemala to speak about Mayan resistance to mining in Guatemala, mining which is done mainly by Canadian companies. Morales is the president of the CCDA or Campesino Committee of the Highlands, and she described a recent march that took over 1,500 people from the Northeast of Guatemala to the capital city, to share their demands with the president and the press. Morales described the impacts of mining to campesino and Indigenous people in Guatemala and the numerous projects and initiatives that the Campesino Committee of the Highlands engages in.
More on this story: Listen to Lesbia Morales' full talk
News Headlines
Rainbow Lake Oil Spill
An oil spill caused by a ruptured pipeline was discovered by employees of another energy company while they were flying over the site. An estimated 22 000 barrels of a mixture of oil and water have been spilled into northern Alberta's muskeg. Some have estimated this to be the third largest oil spill in Canada's history. The cause of the pipeline rupture is still unknown. The spill comes just less than a year after the Rainbow pipeline, owned by Plains All American Pipeline Ltd., spilled more that 28 000 barrels of oil in northern Alberta.
More on this story: Globe and Mail, Edmonton Sun, Huffington Post
Lush Cosmetics Anti-Oilsands Campaign
Lush announced this week plans to turn their 44 Canadian stores into polling stations to encourage customers to vote against Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline. Enbridge's plans calls for bitumen extracted from the oilsands to be piped across Northern B.C. before being loaded on to supertankers for refining in California and Asia. Recognizing that the Harper government supports oilsands development, Lush is now prompting customers to join Indigenous and environmental groups in trying to stop the project. Storefronts show oil spill imagery and raises the question: "Your land. Your water. Your jobs. Your choice?"
More on this story: Toronto Star, Yahoo News
Climate Change Responsible for Collapse of Harappan Civilization
The reason for the decline and collapse of the Harappan civilization, one of the world's earliest and least known cultures, has been discovered. The Harappans spanned what is now Pakistan and were at their height about 4000 years ago. It was an urban society with large cities, a distinctive style of writing and extensive trade that reached as far as Mesopotamia. Unlike Egypt and Mesopotamia, however, the Harappans did not attempt to develop irrigation to support agriculture. Instead, they relied on the annual monsoons, which allowed the accumulation of large agricultural surpluses — which, in turn, allowed the creation of cities. The disappearance of this once great civilization has been a mystery, until now. Scientists have discovered that there was an eastward shift of annual monsoons around 3900 years ago, which citizens of the Harappan civilization followed. Their society collapsed, and people moved eastward, living instead in small farming communities, rather than large cities. Agricultural knowledge actually grew after this move, but the civilization's culture and writing system were forgotten.
More on this story: LA Times, Huffington Post, Eurekalert.org
Science Prodigy Raymond Wang
Meet Raymond Wang, a fourteen year old from Vancouver. He's a finalist at this year's Google Science Fair. His eureka moment? Rain hitting his roof. Wang invented a piezo-electric rooftop panel that generates electricity from wind and rain. He hopes to combine it with a flexible solar panel to generate power no matter what the weather outside. The grand prize winner at the Google Science Fair wins $50,000 and a 10-day trip to the Galápagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions.
More on this story: Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Straight, Energy Harvesting Journal


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|Mon, 07 Oct 2002 01:21:22
FROM: DR. SAM EZE BANK MANAGER (UNION BANK OF NIGERIA PLC) MARINA LAGOS Dear Sir, REQUEST FOR YOUR UNRESERVED ASSISTANCE Firstly, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction, this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. We have decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction, as we have been reliably informed of it's swiftness and confidentiality. Let me start by first introducing myself properly to you. I am DR. SAM EZE, a Manager at the Union Bank Nigeria PLC, Lagos. I came to know of you in my private search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential transaction,which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account requiring maximum confidence. A foreigner, Late Engineer William Adams, an oil Merchant /contractor with the federal Government of Nigeria, until his death three years ago in a ghastly air crash, banked with us here at the Union Bank PLC ,Lagos, and had a closing balance of USD$22.2M (Twenty-Two Million, Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) which the bank now unquestionably expects to be claimed by any of his available foreign next of kin or alternatively be donated to a discredited trust fund for arms and ammunition at a military war collage here in Nigeria. Fervent valuable efforts are being made by the Union Bank to get in touch with any of late Engr. William Adams's next of kin (he had no known wife and children) that the management under the influence of our chairman, board of directors, Retired Major General Kalu Uke Kalu, that an arrangement for the fund to be declared "UNCLIAMABLE " and then be subsequently donated to the trust fund for Arms and Ammunition, which will further enhance the course of war in Africa and the world in general. In order to avert this negative development, myself and some of my trusted colleagues in the bank now seek for your permission to have you stand as late Engr.WILLIAMS ADAMSs next of kin so that the fund, USD$22.2M, would be subsequently transferred and paid into your bank account as the beneficiary next of kin. All documents and proves to enable you get this fund have been carefully worked out and we are assuring you a 100% risk free involvement. Your share would be 30% of the total amount. 10% has been set aside for expenses, while the rest would be for myself and mycolleagues for purposes in your country. If this proposal is OK by you and you do not wish to take advantage of the trust we hope to bestow on you and your company, then kindly get to me immediately via my e-mail address furnishing me with your most confidential telephone, fax and e-mail, so that I can forward to you the relevant details of this transaction. Thank you in advance for your anticipated co-operation. Regards. DR. SAM EZE
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IJRC > The Revolutionary's Library via POST-PRISON WRITINGS (1968), April 19, 2012 | by ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
This essay is excepted from: Scheer, Robert ed., Eldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison Writings and Speeches, 1968
This essay is excepted from: Scheer, Robert ed., Eldridge Cleaver: Post-Prison Writings and Speeches, 1968
While confined in California's Vacaville Prison after the Oakland shoot-out, Cleaver managed to smuggle out the following letter describing his first encounter with the Black Panthers.
I fell in love with the Black Panther Party immediately upon my first encounter with it; it was literally love at first sight. It happened one night at a meeting in a dingy little storefront on Scott Street in the Fillmore district, the heart of San Francisco's black ghetto. It was February 1967. The meeting was the latest in a series of weekly meetings held by a loose coalition functioning under the name of the Bay Area Grassroots Organizations Planning Committee. The purpose of the coalition was to coordinate three days of activities with the worthy ambition of involving the total black community in mass action commemorating the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. The highlight and culmination of the memorial was to be the appearance of Sister Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow, who was to deliver the keynote speech at a mass meeting at the Bayview Community Center in Hunter's Point.
Among the topics on the agenda for this fortuitous meeting was the question of providing security for Sister Betty during the twenty-four hours she was to be our guest in the Bay Area.There was a paranoia around -- which I did not share -- that assassins by the dozens were lurking everywhere for the chance to shoot Sister Betty down. This fear, real or imagined, kept everybody uptight.
I had arrived at the meeting late, changing at the last minute a previous decision not to attend at all. I was pissed off at everyone in the room. Taking a seat with my back to the door I sat there with, I'm sure, a scornful frown of disdain upon my face. Roy Ballard (if the normal brain had three cylinders his would have one) sat opposite me, across the circle formed by the placement of the chairs. He, above all, understood the expression on my face, for he had done the most to put it there; this accounted, I thought, for the idiot grin on his own.
On Roy's left sat Ken Freeman, chairman of the now defunct Black Panther Party of Northern California, who always looked to me like Dagwood, with his huge round bifocals and the bald spot in the front of his natural. On Roy's right sat a frightened-looking little mulatto who seemed to live by the adage, "It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." He probably adopted that rule from observing his big fat yellow wife, who was seated on his right and who had said when I walked in, just loud enough for me to hear, "Shit! I thought we agreed after last week's meeting that he wouldn't be allowed to attend any more meetings!"
Next to her sat Jack Trueblood, a handsome, earnest youth in a black Russian cap who represented San Francisco State College's Black Students Union and who always accepted whatever tasks were piled upon him, insuring that he would leave each weekly meeting with a heavy load. On his right sat a girl named Lucky. I could never tell why they called her that --not, I'm sure, because she happened to be Roy Ballard's old lady; maybe because she had such a beautiful smile.
Between Lucky and myself sat Marvin Jackmon, who was known as a poet, because after Watts went up in flames he had composed a catchy ditty entitled "Burn, Baby, Burn!" and a play entitled
Flowers for the Trashman. (It is hard for me to write objectively about Marvin. My association with him, dating from the third week of December 1966, ended in mutual bitterness with the closing of the Black House. After getting out of prison that month, he was the first person I hooked up with. Along with Ed Bullins, a young playwright who now has a few things going for himself off-Broadway, and Willie Dale, who had been in San Quentin with me and was trying to make it as a singer, we had founded the Black House in January 1967. Within the next two months the Black House, located in San Francisco, became the center of non-Establishment black culture throughout the Bay Area.)
On my right sat Bill Sherman, an ex-member of the Communist Party and at that time a member of the Central Committee of the Black Panther Party of Northern California. Next to Bill was Victoria Durant, who dressed with what the black bourgeoisie would call "style" or, better yet, "class." She seemed so out of place at those meetings.We were supposed to be representing the common people -- grassroots -- and here was Victoria ready to write out a $50 check at the drop of a hat. She represented as everyone knew,the local clique of black Democrats who wanted inside info on everything even hinting of "organizing" in their stomping grounds -- even if the price of such info was a steady flow of $50 checks.
Then there was Marianne Waddy, who kept everybody guessing because no one was ever sure of where or what she really was. One day she'd be dressed in flowing African gowns with her hair wrapped up in a pretty skashok, the perfect picture of the young Afro-American lady who had established a certain identity and relationship to traditional African culture. The next day she would be dressed like a man and acting like a man who would cut the first throat that got in his way.
Next to Marianne sat a sneaky-looking fellow called Nasser ShabazzLumumba Lynch. Ann was the head of Black Care, the women's auxiliary to this Panther Party. These sisters spent all of their time talking about the impending violent stage of the black revolution, which was inevitable, and how they, the women, must be prepared to care for the men who would be wounded in battle.
I had come out of prison with plans to revive the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the vehicle finally settled upon by Malcolm X to spearhead the black revolution. The OAAU had never really got off the ground, for it was stopped by the assassin's bullets that felled Malcolm on the stage of the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. I was amazed that no one else had moved to continue Malcolm's work in the name of the organization he had chosen, which seemed perfect to me and also logically necessary in terms of historical continuity. The three-day memorial, which was but part of the overall plan to revive the OAAU, was to be used as a forum for launching the revival. In January, I had put the plan on paper and circulated it throughout the Bay Area, then issued a general call for a meeting to establish a temporary steering committee that would see after things until the start of the memorial. At this time we would have a convention, found the Bay Area branch of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and elect officers whom Sister Betty Shabazz would install, giving the whole effort her blessings in a keynote address on the final day of the memorial.
By February the plan had been torn to shreds. If the plan was a pearl, then I had certainly cast it before swine, and the biggest swine of all, Roy Ballard, had hijacked the plan and turned it into a circus. It soon became clear that if the OAAU was to be reborn, it would not be with the help of this crew, because all they could see was the pageantry of the memorial. Beyond that, their eyes blotted out all vision. Far from wanting to see an organization develop that would put an end to the archipelago of one-man showcase groups that plagued the black community with division, they had each made it their sacred cause to insure the survival of their own splinter group.
From the beginning, when the plan was first put before them, they took up each separate aspect and chewed it until they were sure it was either maimed for life or dead. Often after an idea had gone around the circle, if it still showed signs of life they would pounce upon it and rend it some more. When they finished, all that was left of the original plan was a pilgrimage to the site where a sixteen-year-old black youth, Matthew Johnson, had been murdered by a white cop; putting some pictures of Malcolm X on the walls of the Bayview Community Center; a hysterical speech by Ken Freeman; and twenty-four hours of Sister Betty Shabazz's time.In all fairness, however, I must confess that the whole plan was impossible to achieve, mostly because it did not take into account certain negative aspects of the black man's psychological heritage from four hundred years of oppression here in Babylon. Then, too, I was an outsider. Having gone to prison from Los Angeles, I had been paroled to San Francisco. I was an interloper unfolding a program to organize their community. Fatal. It didn't matter to them that we were dealing with the concept of the Black Nation, of colonized Afro-America, and that all the boundaries separating our people were the stupid impositions of the white oppressors and had to be obliterated. Well, no matter; I had failed. Proof of my failure was Roy Ballard,sitting there before me like a gaunt buzzard, presiding over the carcass of a dream.
"I spun round in my seat and saw the most beautiful sight I had ever seen: four black men wearing black berets, powder blue shirts, black leather jackets, black trousers, shiny black shoes -- and each with a gun! In front was Huey P. Newton with a riot pump shotgun in his right hand, barrel pointed down to the floor."
Suddenly the room fell silent. The crackling under-current that for weeks had made it impossible to get one's point across when one had the floor was gone; there was only the sound of the lock clicking as the front door opened, and then the soft shuffle of feet moving quietly toward the circle. Shadows danced on the walls. From the tension showing on the faces of the people before me, I thought the cops were invading the meeting, but there was a deep female gleam leaping out of one of the women's eyes that no cop who ever lived could elicit. I recognized that gleam out of the recesses of my soul, even though I had never seen it before in my life: the total admiration of a black woman for a black man. I spun round in my seat and saw the most beautiful sight I had ever seen: four black men wearing black berets, powder blue shirts, black leather jackets, black trousers, shiny black shoes -- and each with a gun! In front was Huey P. Newton with a riot pump shotgun in his right hand, barrel pointed down to the floor. Beside him was Bobby Seale, the handle of a .45 caliber automatic showing from its holster on his right hip, just below the hem of his jacket. A few steps behind Seale was Bobby Hutton, the barrel of his shotgun at his feet. Next to him was Sherwin Forte, an M1 carbine with a banana clip cradled in his arms.Roy Ballard jumped to his feet. Licking his lips, he said, "For those of you who've never met the brothers, these are the Oakland Panthers."
"You're wrong," said Huey P. Newton. "We're not the Oakland Panthers. We happen to live in Oakland. Our name is the Black Panther Party."
With that the Panthers seated themselves in chairs along the wall, outside the circle. Every eye in the room was riveted upon them. What amazed me was that Roy Ballard did not utter one word in contradiction, nor was there any other yakkity-yak around the room. There was absolute silence. Even little Patrice Lumumba Lynch seemed to sit up and take notice.
Where was my mind at? Blown! Racing through time, racing through the fog of a perspective that had just been shattered into a thousand fragments. Who are these cats? I wondered at them, checking them out carefully. They were so cool and it seemed to me not unconscious of the electrifying effect they were having on everybody in the room. Then I recalled a chance remark that Marvin Jackmon had once made. We were discussing the need for security at the Black House because the crowds were getting larger and larger and we had had to bodily throw out a cat who was high and acting like he owned the place. I said that Marvin, Ed, Dale and I had better each get our self a gun. As I elaborated on the necessity as I saw it, Marvin said: "You need to forget about the Black House and go across the bay and get with Bobby Seale." And then he laughed."
Who is Bobby Seale?" I asked him.
At first he gave no answer, he seemed to be carefully considering what to say. Finally he said, "He's arming some brothers across the bay." Though I pressed him, he refused to go into it any further, and at the time it didn't seem important to me, so I forgot about it. Now, sitting there looking at those Panthers, I recalled the incident with Marvin. I looked at him. He seemed to have retreated inside himself, sitting there looking like a skinny black Buddha with something distasteful and menacing on his mind.
"Do you brothers want to make a speech at the memorial?" Roy Ballard asked the Panthers.
"Yes," Bobby Seale said.
"O.K.," said Ballard. "We have the program broken down into subjects: Politics, Economics, Self-Defense and Black Culture. Now which section do you brothers want to speak under?"This was the sort of question which in my experience had always signaled the beginning of a two-hour debate with this group.
"It doesn't matter what section we speak under," Huey said. "Our message is one and the same. We're going to talk about black people arming themselves in a political fashion to exert organized force in the political arena to see to it that their desires and needs are met. Otherwise there will be a political consequence. And the only culture worth talking about is a revolutionary culture. So it doesn't matter what heading you put on it, we're going to talk about political power growing out of the barrel of a gun."
"O.K.," Roy Ballard said. He paused, then added, "Let's put it under Politics." Then he went on to start the specific discussion of security for Sister Betty, who would pick her up at the airport, etc. Bobby Seale was jotting down notes in a little black book. The other Panthers sat quietly, watchfully.
Three days before the start of the memorial, I received a phone call from Los Angeles. The man on the other end identified himself as Hakim Jamal, Malcolm X's cousin by marriage. He would be arriving with Sister Betty, he said, and both of them wanted to talk with me. They had liked, it turned out, an article on Malcolm that I had written and that was published in
Ramparts. We agreed that when they got in from the airport I would meet them at the Ramparts
office in San Francisco.
On the day that Sister Betty and Hakim Jamal were to arrive in San Francisco, I was sitting in my office tinkering with some notes for an article. One of the secretaries burst through the door. Her face was white with fear and she was shouting, "We're being invaded! We're being invaded!"
I couldn't tell just who her invaders were. Were the Chinese coming? Had the CIA finally decided to do
Ramparts in? Then she said, "There are about twenty men outside with guns!"
I knew that Hakim Jamal and Sister Betty had arrived with their escort of armed Black Panthers."
Don't worry," I said, "they're friends."
"Friends?" she gasped. I left her there with her eyes bugging out of her head and rushed to the front of the building.
I waded through Ramparts staff jammed into the narrow hallway, fending off the frightened inquiries by repeating, "It's all right, it's all right." The lobby resembled certain photographs coming out of Cuba the day Castro took Havana. There were guns everywhere, pointed toward the ceiling like metallic blades of grass growing up out of the sea of black faces beneath the black berets of the Panthers. I found Hakim Jamal and Sister Betty surrounded by a knot of Panthers, who looked calm and self-possessed in sharp contrast to the chaotic reactions their appearance had set off. Outside where Broadway ran in four lanes to feed the freeway on-ramp and to receive the heavy traffic from the off-ramp, a massive traffic jam was developing and sirens could be heard screaming in the distance as cops sped our way.
I took Jamal and Sister Betty to an office down the hall. We talked for about fifteen minutes about Malcolm. Sister Betty, her eyes concealed behind dark glasses, said nothing after we were introduced. She looked cool enough on the surface, but it was clear that she felt hard-pressed. Huey P. Newton was standing at the window, shotgun in hand, looking down into the upturned faces of a horde of police. I left the room to get Sister Betty a glass of water, squeezing past Bobby Seale and what seemed like a battalion of Panthers in the hall guarding the door. Seale's face was a chiseled mask of determination.
A few yards down the hall, Warren Hinckle III, editor of Ramparts, was talking to a police lieutenant.
"What's the trouble?" the lieutenant asked, pointing at the Black Panthers with their guns.
"No trouble," Hinckle said. "Everything is under control."
The policeman seemed infuriated by this answer. He stared at Bobby Seale for a moment and then stalked outside. While I was in the lobby a TV cameraman, camera on his shoulder,forced his way through the front door and started taking pictures. Two white boys who worked at Ramparts stopped the TV man and informed him that he was trespassing on private property. When he refused to leave they picked him up and threw him out the door, camera and all.
When it was agreed that it was time to leave, Huey Newton took control. Mincing no words, he sent five of his men out first to clear a path through the throng of spectators clustered outside the door, most of whom were cops. He dispatched a phalanx of ten Panthers fast on their heels, with Hakim Jamal and Sister Betty concealed in their midst. Newton himself, along with Bobby Seale and three other Panthers, brought up the rear.
I went outside and stood on the steps of Ramparts to observe the departure. When Huey left the building, the TV cameraman who had been tossed out was grinding away with his camera. Huey took an envelope from his pocket and held it up in front of the camera, blocking the lens.
"Get out of the way!" the TV man shouted. When Huey continued to hold the envelope in front of the lens, the TV man started cursing, and reached out and knocked Huey's hand away with his fist. Huey coolly turned to one of the score of cops watching and said:
"Officer, I want you to arrest this man for assault."
An incredulous look came into the cop's face, then he blurted out: "If I arrest anybody it'll be you!
"Huey turned on the cameraman, again placing the envelope in front of the lens. Again the cameraman reached out and knocked Huey's hand away. Huey reached out, snatched the cameraman by the collar and slammed him up against the wall, sending him spinning and staggering down the sidewalk, trying to catch his breath and balance the camera on his shoulder at the same time.
Bobby Seale tugged at Huey's shirt sleeve. "C'mon, Huey, let's get out of here."
Huey and Bobby started up the sidewalk toward their car. The cops stood there on the point, poised as though ready to start shooting at a given signal.
"Don't turn your backs on these back-shooting dogs!" Huey called out to Bobby and the other three Panthers. By this time the other Panthers with Sister Betty and Jamal had gotten into cars and melted into the traffic jam. Only these five were still at the scene.
At that moment a big, beefy cop stepped forward. He undid the little strap holding his pistol in his holster and started shouting at Huey, "Don't point that gun at me! Stop pointing that gun at me!" He kept making gestures as though he was going for his gun.
This was the most tense of moments. Huey stopped in his tracks and stared at the cop.
"Let's split, Huey! Let's split!" Bobby Seale was saying.
Ignoring him, Huey walked to within a few feet of the cop and said, "What's the matter, you got an itchy finger?"
The cop made no reply.
"You want to draw your gun?" Huey asked him.
The other cops were calling out for this cop to cool it, to take it easy, but he didn't seem to be able to hear them. He was staring into Huey's eyes, measuring him.
"O.K.," Huey said. "You big fat racist pig, draw your gun!"
The cop made no move.
"Draw it, you cowardly dog!" Huey pumped a round into the chamber of the shotgun. "I'm waiting," he said, and stood there waiting for the cop to draw.
All the other cops moved back out of the line of fire. I moved back, too, onto the top step of Ramparts. I was thinking, staring at Huey surrounded by all those cops and daring one of them to draw, "Goddam, that nigger is c-r-a-z-y!"
Then the cop facing Huey gave it up. He heaved a heavy sigh and lowered his head. Huey literally laughed in his face and then went off up the street at a jaunty pace, disappearing in ablaze of dazzling sunlight.
"Work out, soul brother!" I was shouting to myself.
"You're the baddest motherfucker I've ever seen!" I went back into Ramparts and we all stood around chattering excitedly, discussing what we had witnessed with disbelief.
"Who was that?" asked Vampira, Warren Hinckle's little sister.
"That was Huey P. Newton," I said, "Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party."
"Boy, is he gutsy!" she said dreamily.
"Yeah," I agreed. "He's out of sight!"
The quality in Huey P. Newton's character that I had seen that morning in front of Ramparts and that I was to see demonstrated over and over again after I joined the Black Panther Party was courage. I had called it "crazy," as people often do to explain away things they do not understand. I don't mean the courage "to stand up and be counted," or even the courage it takes to face certain death. I speak of that revolutionary courage it takes to pick up a gun with which to oppose the oppressor of one's people. That's a different kind of courage.
Oppressed people, Fanon points out, kill each other all the time. A glance through any black newspaper will prove that black people in America kill each other with regularity. This is the internalized violence of oppressed people. Angered by the misery of their lives but cowed by the overt superior might of the oppressor, the oppressed people shrink from striking out at the true objects of their hostility and strike instead at their more defenseless brothers and sisters near at hand. Somehow this seems safer, less fraught with dire consequences, as though one is less dead when shot down by one's brother than when shot down by the oppressor. It is merely criminal to take up arms against one's brother, but to step outside the vicious circle of the internalized violence of the oppressed and take up arms against the oppressor is to step outside of life itself, to step outside of the structure of this world, to enter, almost alone, the no-man's-land of revolution.
"For the revolutionary black youth of today, time starts moving with the coming of Malcolm X. Before Malcolm, time stands still, going down in frozen steps into the depths of the stagnation of slavery. Malcolm talked shit, and talking shit is the iron in a young nigger's blood. Malcolm mastered language and used it as a sword to slash his way through the veil of lies that for four hundred years gave the white man the power of the word."
Huey P. Newton took that step. For the motto of the Black Panther Party he chose a quotation from Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book: "We are advocates of the abolition of war; we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war; and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to pick up the gun."
When I decided to join the Black Panther Party the only hang-up I had was with its name. I was still clinging to my conviction that we owed it to Malcolm to pick up where he left off. To me,this meant building the organization that he had started. Picking up where Malcolm left off, however, had different meanings for different people. For cats like Marvin Jackmon, for instance,it meant returning to the ranks of Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam, denouncing Malcolm as a heretic and pledging loyalty to Elijah, all in Malcolm's name. For Huey, it meant implementing the program that Malcolm advocated. When that became clear to me, I knew what Huey P. Newton was all about.
For the revolutionary black youth of today, time starts moving with the coming of Malcolm X. Before Malcolm, time stands still, going down in frozen steps into the depths of the stagnation of slavery. Malcolm talked shit, and talking shit is the iron in a young nigger's blood. Malcolm mastered language and used it as a sword to slash his way through the veil of lies that for four hundred years gave the white man the power of the word. Through the breach in the veil, Malcolm saw all the way to national liberation, and he showed us the rainbow and the golden pot at its end. Inside the golden pot, Malcolm told us, was the tool of liberation. Huey P. Newton, one of the millions of black people who listened to Malcolm, lifted the golden lid off the pot and blindly, trusting Malcolm, stuck his hand inside and grasped the tool. When he withdrew his hand and looked to see what he held, he saw the gun, cold in its metal and implacable in its message: Death-Life, Liberty or Death, mastered by a black hand at last! Huey P. Newton is the ideological descendant, heir and successor of Malcolm X. Malcolm prophesied the coming of the gun to the black liberation struggle. Huey P. Newton picked up the gun and pulled the trigger, freeing the genie of black revolutionary violence in Babylon.
The genie of black revolutionary violence is here, and it says that the oppressor has no rights which the oppressed are bound to respect. The genie also has a question for white Americans: which side do you choose? Do you side with the oppressor or with the oppressed? The time for decision is upon you. The cities of America have tested the first flames of revolution. But a hotter fire rages in the hearts of black people today: total liberty for black people or total destruction for America.
The prospects, I confess, do not look promising. Besides being a dumb nation, America is mad with white racism. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. Perhaps America has been mad far too long to make any talk of sanity relevant now. But there is a choice and it will be made, by decision or indecision, by action or inaction, by commission or omission.Black people have made their choice; a revolutionary generation that has the temerity to say to America that Huey P. Newton must be set free, also invested with the courage to kill, pin sits hopes on the revolutionary's faith and says, with Che: "Wherever death may surprise us, it will be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, reach some receptive ear, that another hand reach out to pick up weapons, and that other fighting men come forward to intone our funeral dirge with the staccato of machine guns and new cries of battle and victory."
June 15, 1968


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Perhaps above all other wines from this rejuvenated winery, this one represents the vision and hard graft of winemaker Mercedes Garcia. The long-standing and sometimes frustrating regulations of D.O.C. Rioja are effectively ignored here to produce a wine that matches her desire to express the intensity, vibrancy and suppleness afforded by fruit from wonderful old vines grown on calcareous clay soils.
This blew us away when we first tasted it at the old winery in Fuenmayor, its modern profile somewhat belying the ancient stone surroundings.
70% Tempranillo and 30% Graciano are fermented separately in steel tanks, the must in contact with the skins for 20 days. The wines are racked into a combination of new French oak and 'mixed wood' barrels – French staves interspersed with American – before blending and ageing for 6 months in these barrels. 18 months in bottle prior to release.
This is quite simply one of the best Spanish wines we've ever tasted, profoundly appealing on the nose with a big hit of ripe black fruits and touches of caramel and brioche. Powerful yet beautifully fresh and elegant on the palate.
Commended, International Wine Challenge 2020 (2014 vintage)
Lively aromatics mingle with wood smoke and forest floor. Classy new oak character in a modern style. Delicious fruit, fine tannins and a persistent finish.
94 / 100 Decanter Magazine March 2018 (2010 vintage)
Questions about ordering or which wine is right for you?
Please call us and we can help you out.


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Rosa arvensis, Field Rose, is a good country hedging plant, suitable for any soil. It is best used in combination with other native hedging plants which can include a range of wild roses if you wish. But a simple mix might be part hawthorn, part blackthorn, part hazel and part field rose for example. The field rose is one of the prettiest of the native British wild roses. It is under-used and not appreciated as much as it deserves and because it is so well suited for use in mixed hedges up to about 3 metres tall it should get more attention. View our selection of hedging roses or see our full range of hedging plants.
If grown as a single species hedge, you should plant Rosa arvensis at 3 plants per metre (i.e. 33cms apart) in a single row. Cut it back hard after planting and again a year later to encourage a thick hedge from ground level up.
However Field Roses are more usually grown as part of a mixed hedge - maybe making up 10% of the mixture. The whole hedge is then planted at 5 plants per metre in a staggered double row, with 33 cms between each plant along the row and 40cms between the rows.
This dense growing native shrub is commonly found in country hedgerows. It is covered in single flowers in summer which are then followed in autumn by masses of shiny red hips. Grown on its own a field rose makes a rather mounded specimen, but it also rambles happily and so is an excellent addition to a mixed native hedge.
Rosa arvensis hedge plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).


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We recognise that it is important to our clients to be in control of the costs of their case. We are open and transparent with our costs and provide regular cost estimates. We are proud to be very competitive in comparison to other local firms, without compromising on quality.
We offer the following cost options:
Fixed Fees
We offer a fixed fee first appointment for £100 plus Vat making a total cost of £120. At that appointment, we will advise you fully. We will provide you with confirmation of the advice in writing.
Dependent upon the nature of your matter we then have a number of fixed fee options which provide you with the security of knowing what your costs are at the outset.
Full details of the fixed fee options available can be found here. (Please be aware that additional charges may be payable.)
Hourly rate
For the situations where a fixed fee option is not available, we will provide you with an estimate of costs on the basis of our hourly rate.
Legal Aid
Legal Aid is available to all parents (and others with parental responsibility) and children involved in public law cases where a local authority is applying for a court order, regardless of their financial situation.
Legal Aid is only available in private law cases, e.g., disputes between couples and parents in very limited cases if you or your child have suffered or are at risk of violence or abuse and can produce the documentary evidence required by the Legal Aid Agency to prove it. In addition, it is always means tested.
Contact our Child Law Solicitors, Basingstoke, Reading, Portsmouth, Guildford, Salisbury and Southampton
We are a down to earth firm of family law experts, with a friendly, human approach to legal services. We provide fair and workable solutions that put families first, with a particular focus on child law, we advise on all areas of family law, including financial disputes, prenuptials, divorce, separation and dissolution of civil partnerships. We are accredited members of the Law Society Children Panel and Resolution.
For guidance and representation on your family issues, speak to one of our team. Child Law Partnership have offices in Guildford, Basingstoke, Southampton and Salisbury helping families across Hampshire, Surrey, Wiltshire, Reading and the surrounding areas. We offer a fixed fee initial appointment where you can receive full advice with a follow up in writing in order that you can consider your options. Give us a call on 01256 630080 or complete our enquiry form.
Child Law Partnership have offices in Basingstoke, Guilford, Southampton and Salisbury serving clients across Hampshire, Surrey and Wiltshire.


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Nutrition and Your Genes
Genes …. genes …. genes. It seems that these days we hear so much about how everything from obesity to cancer has a genetic component, and there's nothing we can do about it – in other words, we are subject to all sorts of inherited traits from our ancestry. Right? WRONG. Your DNA does not have to be your destiny.
While there are, of course, genes that are hard-wired (eye color, hair color, and so forth), it turns out that when it comes to matters of health and weight, it's more about what our genes are exposed to, and not the gene itself. It turns out that lifestyle — what we've eaten or drunk, inhaled, surrounded ourselves with in our environment, endured as stresses, participated in as activities or suffered as injury, infection or inflammation, our sleep patterns, spirituality, and even our thoughts — has the ability to either turn large amounts of our genes on, or turn them off . This means that our genes are largely modifiable, and nutrition plays a huge role.
It has to do with the sciences of epigenetics, nutrigenomics, and a biochemical process called methylation.
The Science of Epigenetics
Epigenetics is the study of how DNA trait variations are caused by environmental factors influencing our genetic expression – i.e., whether a gene will be turned on or off – instead of being caused by changes in DNA sequence. Epigenetics involves genetic control by factors other than an individual's DNA.¹
It might be easier to think about epigenetics as being analogous to playing cards. In every card game (poker, gin rummy, etc.), we are dealt a certain number of cards. If we never did anything with those cards – if we never played the hand we were dealt — they would be fixed that way forever. So think about the hand we are dealt as being our DNA.
Playing cards, however, is more about how we play the hand we're dealt, rather than the hand itself. In cards, depending on how we play the hand, a variety of things can happen in the game. It is how we play the hand, of course, which determines whether we win or lose. Now think about how we play the hand we're dealt as being how our genes are reacting to what they're exposed to – how our genes are expressing themselves, or "genetic expression". This is the science of epigenetics. It is epigenetics that tells our DNA what to do.
Epigenetics is now considered an important mechanism in the unknown etiology of many diseases, such as inflammation, immune diseases, cancer, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and even aging.
The Science of Nutrigenomics
Now think about this in the context of our lifestyle habits – what we do and are exposed to every day. It is the science of nutrigenomics that tells us it is our lifestyle habits – specifically our nutrition — that determine which genes will be turned on, and which genes will be turned off. Nutrigenomics is the study of the effects that foods and food constituents (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals) have on gene expression. It is the scientific study of the interaction of nutrition and genes.
Nutrients from foods and dietary supplements have the ability to communicate with our genes. They contain many inhibitors and stimulators (dietary signals) that are able to modify gene expression. In other words, dietary components (nutrients from foods and dietary supplements) can selectively activate or inactive gene expression.
This makes nutritional intervention a plausible way to reprogram the epigenome (chemical compounds that tell the DNA what to do) to promote health. It means that we are not subject to all sorts of inherited traits from our ancestry. We can reprogram many genes to promote health, and employing good nutrition in our lives is at the top of the list.
From Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD's book, "Genetic Nutritioneering: How You Can Modify Inherited Traits and Live a Longer, Healthier Life", here's a list of some of the modifiable genetic factors over which nutrition and lifestyle changes can exert a good deal of control:
- Poor strength
- Reduced flexibility
- Poor aerobic ability
- Inappropriately high level of body fat
- Poor control of insulin and blood sugar
- Increased inflammation (pain)
- Increased risk of heart disease
- Accelerated brain aging
- Increased risk of cancer and More
In the body, there are many metabolic processes dependent on nutrition for health. One of these is called methylation. Methylation is a vital metabolic process that happens in every cell and every organ of our body. It is the passing of a chemical fragment called a methyl group (a carbon atom linked to three hydrogens) from one molecule to another. Methylation is a type of repair process. Life would not exist without it.
The list of bodily processes that methylation is involved in is quite lengthy. In general, methylation:
- Clears environmental toxins from body.
- Is involved in inflammatory control and other immune functions, including autoimmunity
- Helps with detoxification of many carcinogens, both organic and inorganic.
- Is involved in nervous system, gastrointestinal system and with lung function
- Is involved in the cardiovascular system
- Helps to process hormones
- Helps with energy production
- Turns genes on and off
- Is associated with aging and longevity
- More
DNA Methylation
DNA methylation is a process by which methyl groups are added to DNA. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism used by cells to control gene expression. DNA methylation is also associated with healthy aging.
Abnormal DNA methylation is associated with cancer and a number of other chronic diseases. There are several things that can disturb proper methylation in the body:
- Lack of nutrients that act as precursors for the formation of methyl donors
- Medications which deplete nutrients necessary for methylation
- Specific nutrients depleting methyl groups (ie: high-dose niacin)
- Environmental toxicity, heavy metals, chemicals
- Genetic mutations
- Mental stress, sleep, lack of congruence
Protecting Your DNA
There are several things that can be done to protect your DNA. Supporting methylation processes in your body is, of course, high on the list. Supporting other functions, such as detoxification, immune system, gastrointestinal system, etc., is also high on the list.
Choosing the right nutrients from foods and dietary supplements plays a huge role in ensuring proper methylation and protecting DNA. Of course, making other lifestyle changes may also be needed.
"Healthy lifestyle habits, including natural (unprocessed) foods,
regular physical activity, and maintenance of normal weight
may help reduce DNA damage and enhance DNA repair"
– Genes and Nutrition
Nutritional Consultation, Genetic Testing, and Food Allergies
Determining the proper nutrition unique to you is determined in an individual nutritional consultation. Amongst other assessment tools that we may recommend, if needed, is a genetic test known as a Methyl Detox Profile. This test looks for genetic mutations that may be affecting healthy methylation. If you have any SNPs (mutations), nutrition can play a key role in improving proper methylation — remember nutrition has a profound effect on epigenetics. If genetic testing for possible methylation SNPs (mutations) is recommended, a test kit will be provided to you.
In addition, it should be noted that food allergies can alter genes. A nutritional consultation will also determine any food allergies you may have. Food allergy testing is also available, if needed, and test kits will be provided if food allergy testing is recommended. A diet plan and other nutritional recommendations customized to your individual needs and genetic make-up (if genetic testing is done) will be made.
We Can No Longer Blame Our Genes
This new association between diet and genetic expression puts a much greater responsibility on us in selecting the foods we eat, and in making healthy lifestyle choices. We cannot create an environment in which obesity genes (as well as disease-creating genes) can flourish. The sort of "bad" news: We can no longer blame our genes for our weight gain or our poor health. The "great" news: WE ARE IN CONTROL. Your DNA is not your destiny.
It is important to note that once a modifiable gene has been turned on, it can be "silenced" or turned off through nutrition and/or other lifestyle changes, but you will always need to be diligent about employing nutrition and other lifestyle changes in your life; otherwise, the gene will turn on (express itself) again. Modifiable genes include obesity genes, as well as those mentioned above.²
You Are Not Alone – I'm Here to Help
Remember that my role is to guide you to health by designing a nutritional program specifically for you – this means I am partnering with you to ensure your success. Not only do our nutritional programs include the nutritional elements (food, recipes, supplements, etc.) and advice, but they also include education, developing strategies and tips, and more that respond to your situation in order to anchor your success.
¹Simmons, D. (2008) Epigenetic influence and disease. Nature Education 1(1):6. (www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/epigenetic-influences-and-disease-895).
²"Genetic Nutritioneering: How You Can Modify Inherited Traits and Live a Longer, Healthier Life", by Jeffrey S. Bland, Ph.D.


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I still remember the first time I encountered an invasive lionfish. It was in the late spring of 2010 during a scuba dive on the North Wall of Grand Cayman. For those unfamiliar, the North Wall is where the coral reefs surrounding the island, at 50 to 70 ft. in depth, abruptly drop off to … [Read More]
Lionfish Invasion: An Update on Successes
Why You Should Never, Ever Release Marine Aquarium Livestock into the Wild
In a perfect world, every fish, invertebrate, or alga introduced to a marine aquarium would be allowed to live out its entire lifespan there. But as we all know, there are many contingencies that can make it necessary for hobbyists to part with livestock—serious compatibility issues arising, an animal purchased on impulse growing too large … [Read More]
The Anatomy of an Invasion: Lionfish
As iconic ornamental marine fish, Pterois spp. are coveted for their unique beauty which is bookended by elegant (but venomous), banner-like finnage. Native to the Indo-Pacific region, lionfish were reportedly discovered in South Florida as early as 1985 with sightings increasing dramatically along the southeast United States coast in the early 2000s. Now their invasive … [Read More]


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Construction Drying
Costly Delays
Drying Applications
Who Benefits
Indoor Air Quality
Water Damage Drying Equipment Is Our Specialty
FLOOD RENTALS HAWAII specializes in renting out the most advanced and affordable water damage drying equipment to meet your emergency needs of any size.
Our equipment consists of industrial portable low grain refrigerant (LGR) and high capacity LGR dehumidifiers, turbo dryers, axial fans, wall cavity drying equipment and HEPA air scrubbers. We also provide moisture meters and thermal infrared imaging cameras to assist our customers with locating moisture in difficult areas.
Emergency call center locations are available 24/7 on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Kona with response times from 1.5 - 3 hours. Equipment is delivered to your jobsite by a certified water damage technician and is available for jobsite support.
We Support:Construction Projects - Preventing Mold by Keeping New Costruction DryHotels and ResortsWeather Related Storm Damage RepairsWater Damage ContractorsMold Remediation ProjectsConcrete Slab Drying - Dehumidification Puts Slab Drying On The Fast TrackHumidity & Climate Control ProjectsSurface Prep & Coating IndustryStorage Facility DehumidificationFire Restoration Cleanup CompaniesIndoor Environmental ProfessionalsHome and Building InspectorsAir Conditioning ContractorsElectrical and Electronics Engineers


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Zung Depression Scale
The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale is a useful tool you can employ to help determine if you may be experiencing symptoms of depression. We've made the scale available below.
The information on this site is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. All content contained on or available through this website (including text, graphics, images and information) is for general information purposes only.


text: Ridiculously adorable family on the blog today. I met Chris and Annie my first year in Bend and have been fortunate to have them as friends ever since. I love photography dates that turn into fun dinner and chat nights. When we met for this session Chris asked me if I though he looked somewhat Amish in his outfit. I said no way, he looked very stylish. An hour later my husband joined us and the first thing he said "Chris, you look Amish, hip Amish". So there we have it, lol. Shot on Portra 400.