Burt's Bees lip balm was originally sold at independently owned health food stores. But more recently, Burt's Bees products have appeared everywhere -- in grocery stores, drug stores, and big-box stores like Target and Wal-Mart. That's because Burt's Bees is now owned by Clorox, a massive corporation that has historically cared very little about the environment.

Many of the products you may trust and respect for their independence and social responsibility are now owned by big corporations that are going out of their way to hide their link to the small, socially responsible brands.

Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, a massive company with a revenue of approximately $11.4 billion. Danone, the French conglomerate which also owns Brown Cow, has acquired a majority holding in Stoneyfield -- the same Danone that had to recall large quantities of its yogurt in 2007 after it was found to contain unsafe levels of dioxins. Horizon Organic milk was bought out by the largest dairy company in the U.S., Dean Foods, in 2005.

Odwalla is now owned by Coca-Cola. Almost as soon as Coca-Cola bought the company, it stopped selling the fresh-squeezed OJ that had made Odwalla famous and popular -- fresh squeezed can't last the days and weeks the juices are now in transit or on the shelf. Pepsi bought Naked Juice in 2006, in order to compete with Odwalla. Smuckers grabbed several juice mainstays from the health food store shelves: After The Fall, R.W. Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic.

Kashi cereals was bought in July 2000 by Kellogg's, the 12th-largest company in North American food sales (but if you look at a box of Kashi's "Go Lean Crunch", for example, you will find not one mention of the fact that Kellogg's owns them.) Kraft Foods bought the natural cereal maker Back to Nature. Kraft is a subsidiary of Altria, which also owns Philip Morris, one of the world's largest producers of cigarettes.

General Mills owns Cascadian Farm. Barbara's Bakery is owned by Weetabix, the leading British cereal company. Health Valley and Arrowhead Mills are owned by Hain Celestial Group, a natural food company traded on the NASDAQ, with H.J. Heinz owning 16 percent of the company.
Green and Black's organic chocolate was taken over in 2005 by Schweppes, the 10th-largest company in North American packaged-food sales. Dagoba Chocolate is actually owned by Hershey Foods.

Marketing strategies have been fooling you, convincing you to trust that the niche brands continue to be small, environmentally conscious businesses with ecologically sound practices. In fact, they are frequently cogs in the giant corporate wheel. It is time to question how much the ownership and neglectful marketing of these "pseudo" responsible brands warrant crossing them off your shopping list. And it is time to find products more in tune with your values -- at least until they, too, get bought out by a large conglomerate.

Congress has introduced legislation intended to establish a federal ban on bisphenol A (BPA) in all food and beverage containers. The measure would greatly expand earlier efforts to limit the chemical from products used only by babies and children.

This move to get BPA out of food and beverage containers is a very positive step, one that could make your food a lot less toxic. It's about time Congress got around to it -- BPA has already been detected in the urine of 95 percent of people tested, probably because it's used so pervasively in everything from canned goods to plastic water bottles.

The move came a day after Sunoco, the gas and chemical company, sent word to investors that it was now refusing to sell BPA to companies for use in food and water containers for children younger than 3. Sunoco told investors that it could not be certain of the compound's safety.

Six baby bottle manufacturers, including Playtex and Gerber, have also announced they would stop using BPA to make baby bottles.

Tests have uncovered toxic levels of the chemical in packaged products, including some marked as "microwave safe." The amounts detected were at levels that scientists have found cause neurological and developmental damage in laboratory animals. The problems include genital defects, behavioral changes and abnormal development of mammary glands.

An overwhelming majority of studies show the chemical is harmful, causing breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity, obesity, low sperm counts, miscarriage and a host of other reproductive failures in laboratory animals. More recent studies using human data have also linked BPA to heart disease and diabetes.

Self confidence is the difference between feeling unstoppable and feeling scared out of your wits. Although many of the factors affecting self confidence are beyond your control, there are a number of things you can consciously do to build self confidence.

The government of Thailand has classified 13 plants - traditionally used as herbal medicines and natural pesticides - as "hazardous substances," causing outrage among farmers and advocates of traditional medicine.

The plants - including ginger, turmeric, neem and chili - have been classified by the Industry Ministry as "hazardous substances type 1," requiring all manufacturers, growers, importers or exporters of any products made from the plants to follow strict safety and quality control rules or face up to six months in jail and a 50,000 baht ($1,400) fine.

Farmers' groups have objected to the new rules as an unfair burden on organic farmers, who will now have to pay more for the registration, packaging and testing of non-synthetic pesticides. They have also objected that the list was developed without any consultation of farmers who would be affected.

"The government keeps promoting organic farming and reduction of chemical use," said Tussanee Verakan, coordinator of the Alternative Agriculture Network. "Why did they put such heavy restrictions on organic substances which are the heart of organic farming?"

Witoon Lianchamroon of the organic farming nonprofit Biothai said he suspects that the move is intended to benefit chemical companies by putting obstacles in the path of those who would otherwise prefer natural alternatives. Because natural pesticides are less toxic and substantially cheaper than imported chemical pesticides, recent years have seen large numbers of Thai farmers abandoning chemical products.

"Instead of tightening controls on these farmer-friendly herbal plants, the committee should crack down on multinational companies who exploit Thai farmers by luring them into buying their highly toxic and costly products," Witoon said.

Alternative medicine practitioners have also reacted angrily to the decision. According to Prapot Paetrakas, deputy director-general of the Department for Development of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, all 13 newly regulated plants are central to the practice of traditional Thai medicine.

 

Taking aspirin daily has no effect on the risk of heart attacks and strokes among diabetics and should no longer be recommended as a routine medical practice, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Dundee, Scotland, and published in the "British Medical Journal.

"We found no evidence to support the use of either aspirin or antioxidants in the primary prevention of cardiovascular events and mortality in people with diabetes," the researchers wrote.

Researchers assigned 1,276 diabetic women and men with no history or symptoms of cardiovascular disease to take either aspirin, an antioxidant or a placebo once per day. After eight years, they found no difference in the rate of heart attacks and strokes between the three groups.

Prior research has indicated that a regular dose of aspirin can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events by 25 percent in people with coronary artery disease or a history of heart attack or stroke. Because diabetes is regarded as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and 80 percent of diabetics die of cardiovascular causes, many doctors and professional organizations have also begun recommending treatment of diabetics with aspirin in recent years.

Aspirin can have serious side effects, however, such as gastrointestinal bleeding.

"We have gotten a bit ahead of ourselves with aspirin," lead researcher Jill Belch said. "We need to think again about using it for primary prevention."

The study was welcomed by clinical pharmacology expert Peter Sever of Imperial College London.

"It confirms many concerns we have that aspirin is very widely used in the general population without an evidence base to support its overall benefits," Sever said. "Thousands of people buy aspirin over the counter -- I'm forever saying to patients you shouldn't be taking this. I have had a couple of patients admitted to hospital with major gastrointestinal bleeding when there was no evidence it was doing any good."