Extracts of Stevia can be 100 to 300 times sweeter than white sugar.

Most people suffer from cravings for sweets and Diana Walker, Cravings Coach, provides powerful nutritional answers to your sweet tooth sugar cravings on this podcast.

Learn more about the wonders of the sweet Stevia Plant here at Diana2.com and at The Cravings Coach blog.

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1. Quick Energy

2. Elevates our Mood

3. Taste - we are born craving sweet taste (think of mother’s milk)

Learn why we crave sugar and how to watch out for hidden sugars.

Learn about the sugar products and sugar substitutes never to have in your diet, and those that you should seldom have in your diet.

See more on Curb Sugar Cravings at The Cravings Coach Blog.

Read more and sign up for Diana’s Healthy Lifestyles newsletter.

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On a Scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your health?

As each cell is replaced in your body, what are you replacing the old cells with? More vibrant, healthy cells? Or dead, depleted, junk food cells?

Do you feel like this?

Tired? Depressed? Mental Fog? Overweight or underweight? Emotional disorders, PMS? Digestive Problems?

Would you like to feel like this?

More Energy? Strong? Clear Thinking? Naturally slender? Inner peace, sense of wellbeing? Emotionally Stable? Good Digestion and Elimination?

98% of the atoms that are in our cells were not there a year ago.

• Every 5 minutes – the cells on the surface of our digestive system is replaced
• Every 3 to 4 days – the muscular lining of our stomach and our intestines is replaced
• Every 10 days – the taste buds in our mouth are replaced
• Every 2 weeks – our gums are replaced
• Every 4 weeks – we have a new covering of skin
• Every 5 months – the enzymes and the chemicals that flow through our liver makes a new liver

Listen to Diana Walker’s Cravings Coach Podcast to learn what it takes to have more energy and a feeling of vibrant health!

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This is now hitting North America.

• Eggs are up 34.8%
• Milk is up 13.3%
• White Bread is up 16.3%

(well I never eat white bread, but I eat whole-grain and multi-grain and sprouted grains and I saw the front page of a local newspaper talking about $10 a loaf bread coming. I already pay $4.55 a loaf for some kamut and spelt breads that I love).

Food prices are the #2 worry behind the worry over Gas prices.

Did you see that Sam’s Club, a subsidiary of Costco, is restricting the purchase of rice? Only 4 bags are allowed at a time of the following rice:

• Jasmine rice
• Basmati rice
• Long grain rice

Wow — with rice being the staple food for more than half the world, this is so serious.

I also learned that in Indonesia, where they are incorporating a hybrid rice, there is controversy. OK - so it yields 50% more rice. But, at such a price to the people who live there…

Big corporations sell their hybrid rice to the farmers. They plant it. They harvest it. Then the next year they have to purchase new seeds.

I think this is so sad. When you think that for centuries and centuries the native cultures have grown their rice, and kept some rice kernels aside to plant the following year - that is the natural way, the way nature intended.

But now big national corporations who are so greedy want to force the people into purchasing their new hybrid rice kernels every year. I know this doesn’t just happen in Indonesia, but it hit me particularly deeply this morning when I was listening to this. The poor rice kernels from the hybrid rice are so altered, they cannot be even considered “real” any more - because nature will not grow new rice from the hybrid seeds the following year. This is “fake food” in my opinion.

I eat a lot of Quinoa - my favorite grain (seed), and I certainly hope the big greedy corporations don’t do the same with that wonderful favorite of mine. Quinoa is such a super natural food that can be used instead of rice, and is helpful to reduce unhealthy food cravings.

Diana Walker, Cravings Coach

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To continue our discussion about the acid alkaline balance in our bodies, I will explain how you can test your own body’s pH level and give you a list of what types of foods are alkaline and healthier for your body. Mixing alkaline foods with acidic foods throughout the day will help keep your body balanced.

Click Here to read more about obtaining optimal health with alkaline foods.

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The same can be said of our food and bodies. Certain foods are extremely acidic and we need to keep a perfect balance between the acidic and alkaline foods we ingest. Too many acidic foods can lead to many health problems.

This week I divulge a list of foods along with their levels of acidic content and explain why all this acid is bad for your body. Click Here to read more about obtaining optimal health with alkaline foods.

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For more healthy recipes check out The Menu Mom!

1 cup 2% creamed cottage cheese
1 cup raw oatmeal
1 cup bread crumbs (use fresh, sprouted grain bread)
3 eggs
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp dill
1 tsp garlic & herbs seasoning

In blender
Blend 3 eggs, add 1/2 the onion, the 2 garlic cloves, along with poultry seasoning, dill and garlic & herbs seasoning.

In bowl:
Mix together cottage cheese, oatmeal, and bread crumbs. Add blended mixture. Add 1/2 onion, chopped finely.

Form into patties.  (Oatmeal and Cottage Cheese Patties or Burgers)

Brown lightly on both sides, in olive oil.

The Oat Burgers taste great like this, but I frequently then put the patties into a casserole dish, and add a can of mushroom soup, mixed with 1/2 cup of water. Place in oven for 15 minutes.

Note, doubling the recipe works fine too).

For more healthy recipes check out The Menu Mom!

Enjoy!

Diana Walker, Cravings Coach

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This is a transcript of the above video. The original video was produced as a 4-part series by Christian Broadcast Network as was made available to the public via You Tube. All efforts have been made to accurately transcribe the videotape.

Pat Robertson: I know you’ve been shocked by our exclusive report on an excitotoxin called monosodium glutamate or MSG. It’s an additive that makes food taste better but you may not realize what it’s doing to your body. It can lead to obesity, heart and brain damage, cancer, and damage, of course, to unborn children, the fetuses.

MSG is everywhere, so how can you avoid it at your grocery store or restaurant? Here’s medical reporter Gailon Totheroh with the final part of this very important series.

Gailon Totheroh: Keeping monosodium glutamate off the table is no easy task. Your waiter or chef rarely knows anything about hidden MSG or what ingredients have it. In the grocery, there are dozens of hidden names for MSG.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: The consumer needs to tell these manufacturers, “We’re not going to buy your product until that’s taken out and don’t disguise names because we will find out what they are.”

Gailon Totheroh: And Dr. Russell Blaylock says science is finding many more problems that may be caused by MSG, even infertility.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: Because the male sperm cannot get to the egg and it decreases the number of sperm. In the female, we know the ovary is filled with glutamate receptors.

Gailon Totheroh: MSG stimulates those receptors so that a woman’s eggs become damaged. And with basic life issues like that, is the Food and Drug Administration sounding any alarms?

Jack Samuels: The FDA has never walked into a flavoring house or into a food producer and stated, “Give me that flavoring. I want to test it for free glutamic acid,” so it’s never been tested.

Gailon Totheroh: Jack Samuels learned that MSG caused his heart spasms years ago.

Jack Samuels: On two occasions they thought I had died because they could not get a pulse.

Gailon Totheroh: And for his own safety, he only shops at a natural food store called Jimbo’s with a specific strategy. Here are some of his secrets: pick organic vegetables without cosmetic wax.

Jack Samuels: They wax them to look better and to fill in the crannies that are normal to growth –

Gailon Totheroh: And that could be a glutamate type –

Jack Samuels: They sometimes put a hydrolyzed protein into that mixture.

Gailon Totheroh: Buy milk that is pasteurized but not homogenized. But not this one that is ultra pasteurized (Horizon Organic).

Jack Samuels: It brings the milk to a higher level of heat and in so doing breaks down some of the protein and so an individual like myself will get sick.

Gailon Totheroh: Terry Strouss blames MSG for the migraines he suffered for almost 15 years. He looks for those secret names at a local grocery.

Terry Strouss: We stay away from bologna and hot dogs and all of the cheaper processed meats.

This is all really safe for our family (pointing to fresh meat aisle).

The ranch (dressing) it might be fat free but it has MSG right in the ingredient list.

There’s a long list of ingredients and certainly some things that could mask MSG but in a small enough content that it doesn’t trigger any kind of reaction in our family.

Gailon Totheroh: So there are definite ways to keep healthy while grocery shopping. And our careful consumers shouldn’t worry about losing business. Strouss says his family actually spends a little more but yet eats much healthier, so everybody wins.

But what about those restaurants? Some chains, like Pizza Hut, list their ingredients online. Pizza Hut actually has five food items they warn as having MSG, such as their wings and salad dressings.

Pizza Hut is not alone. All of the major chains we investigated all had items with disguised MSG. When deciding what to order, be aware that salad dressings, sauces, breaded meats and meat toppings are common offenders.

Classier restaurants are generally safer because they often cook from scratch and add real spices instead of manufactured flavor enhancers. But to be sure, you may have to talk to the chef to find out what he or she uses.

So what should you do in general? Blaylock says go for the fruits and vegetables. He has a DVD on nutrition (Nutrition & Behavior) so families will know the good things that counteract MSG’s effects. He also warns about aspartame, the diet sweetener which is a related compound.

Blaylock especially recommends dark green vegetables because they are high in antioxidants which can defuse MSG. They’re also high in magnesium which can actually block MSG from those glutamate receptors.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: Name something that it doesn’t affect. These receptors in the spleen, they’re in the liver, in the heart, in the GI tract, in the immune system, in the brain, in the peripheral nerve, in the vagas nerves, in all the arteries.

Gailon Totheroh: For centuries the Japanese have used a little seaweed as a flavor enhancer. It had a little glutamate but it didn’t seem to cause any problems. Then about 100 years ago they started manufacturing it, laying the foundation for today’s problems. Massive use of MSG, improper labeling, and a federal agency that refuses to have it labeled so consumers can make intelligent decisions.

Reporting from San Diego, I’m Gailon Totheroh Totheroh, CBN News.

Pat Robertson: Thanks Gailon. If you missed any of our stories on MSG, you can see them by going to our website, CBN.com. You can also download that; you can send some of it to your friends. It’s shocking, Terry –

Anchorwoman: It’s everywhere.

Pat Robertson: It’s everywhere.

Anchorwoman: It’s really astonishing.

Pat Robertson: But the damage it’s doing. It’s – just to think if you’re a pregnant woman and you’re eating a diet high in MSG, like you’re eating Chinese and so forth, your baby is going to be tending toward being fat but it will also not be able to do complex thinking when it gets to be 8, 9, 10 years old.

Anchorwoman: Well, the really frustrating part for the consumer, I think, is that it’s couched in other terms. If it just said MSG you be able to easily know whether it’s in there or not.

Pat Robertson: Well, you know, I mean, Campbell’s Soup, that’s like mother and apple pie. How American can it get, you know? Campbell’s Chunky.

Anchorwoman: It was good without the MSG.

Pat Robertson: Every one of them now has got MSG. You read the labels and it’s just shocking. And Hidden Valley Ranch, it sounds so, like, Roy Rogers but big MSG in it. They’re poisoning you with those sweet names.

Click here if you are interested in Vibrant Health:

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This is a transcript of the above video. The original video was produced as a 4-part series by Christian Broadcast Network as was made available to the public via You Tube. All efforts have been made to accurately transcribe the videotape.

Pat Robertson: Well this is a series about something that appears in food all over our society. It’s in grocery stores, it’s in restaurants; almost everywhere you eat. It’s called monosodium glutamate or MSG. One of the most common food additives in America. In fact, it’s so common that most people in America don’t know they’re eating it. But this flavor booster is now being linked to cancer and heart disease. Here’s medical reporter Gailon Totheroh with Part 3 of our series on MSG.

Gailon Totheroh: Monosodium glutamate is adding flavor to your food but many researchers believe it’s also subtracting many years from your life. Jack Samuels wonders how he’s dodged the MSG bullet for nearly 30 years.

Jack Samuels: I began to collapse towards the end of certain meals in restaurants and frankly I thought I was dying.

Gailon Totheroh: And he could have. A physician diagnosed him with atrial fibrillation.

Jack Samuels: That is my heart becomes like Jell-O and just beats all over the place. And it sometimes takes me up to five or six days to get over the attack.

Gailon Totheroh: But how could MSG be responsible? Dr. Russell Blaylock says it’s because glutamate gets into the blood quickly and stays there. So a person eating MSG throughout the day can raise glutamate blood levels dangerously high.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: With each meal, it rises, it stays elevated until you eat another meal, then it rises even further and you eat another meal and it rises even further and then it stays elevated through a good portion of the night.

Gailon Totheroh: Blaylock says even moderate blood levels of MSG can cause harm partly because specific organs have actual biological triggers called glutamate receptors. A group of these receptors in the heart controls heart rhythm.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: You can induce a fatal arrhythmia, that is the heart beats abnormally, and people could die from it. Well, arrhythmia is the number one cause of death with heart attack. It’s been noted in the medical literature for decades that people who die of sudden cardiac death frequently do so after a meal.

Gailon Totheroh: And Samuels, a retired hospital administrator, says ER doctors…

Jack Samuels: …immediately recognize that it may have been an MSG reaction. Sadly, that knowledge has not gone up beyond the first floor.

Gailon Totheroh: In other words, most cardiologists don’t know about the connection to MSG. 2006 animal research shows that MSG damages blood vessels with substances known as free radicals that can lead to clogged, weak arteries and blood clots.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: With humans consuming it everyday, not just a single injection but everyday, they’re constantly increasing the free radical generation inside the walls of their blood vessels.

Gailon Totheroh: That’s how most heart attacks and strokes come about. Research shows MSG attacks over 40% of the population in some obvious way: migraines, throat swelling, diarrhea, vomiting, irregular heartbeats. But what about the less obvious, even silent, damage?

Glutamate receptors on the lungs could explain the rising affliction of juvenile asthma.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: This is one of the things agreed by everybody is that it will produce worsening of asthma, even fatal asthma.

Gailon Totheroh: And don’t forget the nasty plague of diabetes affecting tens of millions of Americans. There are glutamate receptors on the pancreas, which can lead to diabetes or loss of diabetic control once the disease is present.

Blaylock has also studied cancer extensively and written a book for cancer patients (Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients). In the last five years, researchers have found many cancers have glutamate receptors.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD: The total picture is that if you’re consuming a diet with glutamate in it, particularly high levels, you’re making your cancer grow very rapidly. I refer to it as cancer fertilizer.

Gailon Totheroh: The cancers of this type include several brain cancers, colon cancer, breast cancer, and others as well. For Samuels and others who are concerned about avoiding MSG’s impact on health, there is hope. As hard as navigating the grocery to avoid MSG is, safe shopping is doable if you read food labels carefully.

Gailon Totheroh, CBN News

Pat Robertson: Well if that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will. Isn’t that horrible?

Anchorwoman: It’s exhausting, Pat, because as I’m watching this story, my brain is just spinning thinking what’s in my cabinet.

Pat Robertson: Well, what’s healthy? You want to have a nice healthy salad, right? Salads are good. So you want to get Hidden Valley Ranch Light Buttermilk…

Anchorwoman: I just bought that.

Pat Robertson: Would you mind reading the label, madam?

Anchorwoman: Alright.

Pat Robertson: Just read a few of those things.

Anchorwoman: Alright. Artificial flavors, something gum, then it says monosodium glutamate.

Pat Robertson: That’s MSG. It’s in your salad. And here’s something…

Anchorwoman: I just bought that.

Pat Robertson: Well you better throw it away. Here’s something. Ken’s Steakhouse Light Asian Sesame with Ginger and Soy. Doesn’t that sound delicious? 60% less fat, 40% fewer calories, and what does Ken put in his Asian Sesame sauce?

Anchorwoman: Monosodium glutamate.

Pat Robertson: The same.

Anchorwoman: And I’ve got that one in my fridge, too. Because I’m thinking I’m eating very healthy when I eat my salads so I have an array of salad dressings.

Pat Robertson: Well, here’s one. It sounds nice. Gerard’s Light Caesar Dressing. 50% less fat. Doesn’t that sound good?

Anchorwoman: It sounds luscious.

Pat Robertson: Alright. Tell me what it’s got in that.

Anchorwoman: I’m assuming…yeah…monosodium glutamate. MSG, MSG, and more MSG.

Pat Robertson: And here’s another one. Marzetti. Here’s one I never heard of. It’s Ranch Creamy with Buttermilk but it has…

Anchorwoman: Say it with me.

Pat Robertson: Monosodium Glutamate. I understand that there are a few but if you would like the Lone Ranger to come to the rescue tad a…

Anchorwoman: Olive oil. I can’t stand the taste of olive oil on my food, though.

Pat Robertson: You better start developing a taste. Put this in with it.

Anchorwoman: What is that?

Pat Robertson: It’s…

Anchorwoman: Vinegar? Vinegar and olive oil?

Pat Robertson: That’s it. It’s good for you.

Anchorwoman: It’s good for you but I…

Pat Robertson: It’s in my salad in my diet program.

Anchorwoman: You know what’s even better?

Pat Robertson: What’s that?

Anchorwoman: A little squeeze of lemon. Put some lemon on a salad and call it a day.

Pat Robertson: But the olive oil is so good for you. This is a very…

Anchorwoman: It’s very pure.

Pat Robertson: Extra virgin. Doesn’t it sound good? OK. That’s the good stuff. All this and practically everyone that you see…Now I understand that Paul Newman…Paul Newman has done so much. He gives away – he’s got about a 60 million dollar business and he gives all the profit away to charity.

Anchorwoman: Does he really? Wow.

Pat Robertson: Yeah, Newman’s Own and I’m told that they don’t put MSG in that. So we tip our hat to this outstanding actor. And he’s helping, not only charity, but he’s helping the American people. So if you can find Newman’s Own, use it on your salads but if you really want to make yourselves healthy, take about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar and it would be better.

Click here if you are interested in Vibrant Health:

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This is the second part of yesterday’s transcript and video, originally produced by Christian Broadcast Network and made public by You Tube. All efforts were made to be accurate.

Gailon Totheroh: That’s what happens with infant mice. After being fed MSG they show no signs of mental damage until they’re older and begin to fail at complex tasks. Bluntly put, they become stupid.

And humans are five times more sensitive to MSG than mice, infants even more so. Blaylock believes the entire education system suffers as a result, even the ability of students to get along with each other.

But what about MSG’s impact on brain afflictions in older adults? Blaylock says MSG may only be a contributing factor in starting brain diseases but it can definitely make major neurological afflictions worse.

Alzheimer’s disease; ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease; multiple sclerosis; strokes; Parkinson’s disease. They all involve excitotoxins doing harm.

Blaylock has written the only book on excitotoxins for the general public. He’s updated that information in a book on health and nutrition secrets. He says the key is staying away from MSG but that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Dr. David Buchholz, MD: It’s in all sorts of commercially processed food products that wouldn’t taste like much if they didn’t have this flavor enhancer added to them. And it’s not always labeled as MSG or monosodium glutamate. It’s labeled as hydrolyzed protein or natural flavors and you’d never suspect it.

Gailon Totheroh: But Strouss does suspect it. He and his wife have learned the names that hide MSG.

Terry Strouss: Learning how to do the grocery shopping, reading labels, knowing what types of food to choose, what types of food not to choose.

Gailon Totheroh: Of course, any ingredient with the word glutamate, plus aspartame, autolyzed yeast, broth, caseinate, hydrolyzed protein such as hydrolyzed soy. And for the public, Blaylock says there’s a simple truth: avoiding MSG could be the best thing you’ll ever do for your brain. And, he adds, don’t be surprised when medical organizations and government agencies defend MSG as safe. He says they simply don’t understand the complex vulnerability of the brain.

Gailon Totheroh, CBN News.

Pat Robertson: Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to scare you but we sure are here to warn you and Gailon is here with us. Gailon, this is an absolute horrible, frightening report.
Gailon Totheroh: It is and it’s much worse than we originally thought. Years ago we discussed these topics but the research is showing more and more problems, more and more areas of the body and so everyone is vulnerable in a sense.

Pat Robertson: Does MSG trigger an appetite response, where people want to eat more food if it’s flavored with MSG?

Gailon Totheroh: Yeah, it does. It’s basically a drug affect on the tongue. Not a true flavor, in a sense, so they do want to eat more and that’s partly due to the direct taste affect and also partly what it does to the brain.

Pat Robertson: Does the MSG make people fat directly or is it because it triggers more of a desire to eat food?

Gailon Totheroh: Well, it’s really a secondary affect. It’s partly the food and partly the hormones are messed up in the body, including leptin, and there’s been a lot of discussion about that.

Pat Robertson: Gailon, if a nursing mother, not the nursing mother but a pregnant woman, like, you think, Campbell’s – Campbell’s Chicken and Herbs. I mean, how safe and how wonderful could it be if you’re pregnant, to eat something like this?

Gailon Totheroh: It sounds just delightful on the surface but that baby, who’s very tiny, is getting a larger dose than the mother is getting.

Pat Robertson: And what the research – what Dr. Blaylock was saying, it starts out that you don’t notice it but a child gets to 8, 9, 10 years old, his brain isn’t functioning. He’s stupid?

Gailon Totheroh: That’s right. You don’t notice these things because the child isn’t faced with complex tasks. When they start speaking, when they start going to school – sometimes it’s that late before you notice. They can’t do these complex tasks as well or sometimes at all.

Pat Robertson: But the ADD, which is so prevalent today, they hit the kids with Ritalin and that’s supposed to be the answer. But is ADD caused by this, you think?

Gailon Totheroh: It’s part of the cause because it can cause miswiring of the brain from early on, from the womb in early age -

Pat Robertson: It’s awful.

Gailon Totheroh: - and beyond.

Pat Robertson: I held this up and we had a hard time with the Japanese. Agi-no-moto and monosodium glutamate and – what does that mean? Agi-no-moto?
Gailon Totheroh: The essence of taste. That’s the Japanese name for MSG and that’s the name of the company but this is made right here in the United States.

Pat Robertson: So they put this in everything, essentially.

Gailon Totheroh: Well, different forms of it. See, that’s the tricky part of it. Sometimes it’s added directly as this and then it’s labeled. You see monosodium glutamate. But it’s portions of autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed protein and broth. It all sounds OK.

Pat Robertson: Broth?

Gailon Totheroh: It can but not always. See – that’s the – because the government hasn’t required the proper labeling so we don’t even know. So you’re going to taste that may harm you? Or you might say I’m going to avoid that product. Probably you’re going to say –

Pat Robertson: I mean, you have got to be a food detective to – well hydrolyzed protein sounds pretty benign.

Gailon Totheroh: It does. Well, we’re all supposed to get protein, right? We’re supposed to, maybe, lower our carbs and increase protein but unfortunately a lot of the proteins in all kinds of things – energy bars, etc – are all broken down proteins releasing this glutamate and related substances.

Pat Robertson: Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been talking about Nutrasweet and what a devastating affect it has on memory and brain function. That’s another excitotoxin. But this thing is serious. I know that it’s a pain in the neck to look at the fine print on a box of Knorr’s Tomato and Basil soup that you add water to and you think “Isn’t this going to be wonderful?” and –

Gailon Totheroh: Well, people shouldn’t be discouraged because the fact is when I learned about this stuff we went through the grocery and sometimes there was two products, same thing next to each other, one did and one didn’t. So you just kind of develop your system. Once you have a system you can go through your grocery pretty safely.

Pat Robertson: I got all these things out of my own kitchen cabinet that my own sweet wife brought home and I think these are all destined for the garbage can. But, ladies and gentlemen, if enough consumers begin to object to this then the manufacturers will find some other way of making their food taste good.

We’ve got two more of these pieces coming up, Gailon.

Gailon Totheroh: Yes, we sure do. We’re going to talk about heart disease, sudden death heart attack included, and cancer. This stuff acts like fertilizer for cancer. And our final story then is how do you navigate all this.

Pat Robertson: Well, and things that go bump in the night. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got more information on MSG. You can get it by going to our website CBN.com

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