NewsTarget survey results, part 1: Huge percentage of readers make healthy changes

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: natural health, health outcome, health news

The results are in, folks, and they are astounding. Readers are reporting major, significant, positive life changes after reading NewsTarget articles and commentary. The degree of these positive changes is revealed here in these survey results. More than 820 people participated in this survey, which asked people specific questions about what kinds of changes they've seen in their lives since reading NewsTarget. Here I'm going to discuss some of the more significant improvements and talk about the power of information to change people's lives for the better.

One of the most interesting statistics in this survey is that 57.7 percent of readers have now started reading food ingredients labels when they go grocery shopping. This is a significant positive change for the health of not only readers, but also their families, especially children, because reading food labels is the only way to know what you're eating. Manufacturers hide so many dangerous ingredients in food labels that, unless you make a special effort to read them, you will inevitably end up consuming ingredients that are dangerous to your health, such as hidden hydrogenated oils and yeast extract -- which is an ingredient that contains monosodium glutamate -- or artificial colors and other similar ingredients. In fact, a lot of foods claim to be healthy on the fronts of their labels while hiding dangerous ingredients in the ingredients list. So for NewsTarget information to have helped 57.7 percent of readers start actually reading the food ingredient labels is a major improvement. If we could get that percentage of the entire nation reading food labels, we would experience dramatic health improvements as a result.

Forty-three point nine percent of NewsTarget readers reported increasing their level of physical exercise. This again is a phenomenal number. I'm not aware of any other program or information that has helped 44 percent of people boost their level of physical exercise, and since we know physical exercise is crucial for preventing chronic degenerative diseases like cancer, osteoporosis, depression, obesity, diabetes and so on, this statistic is very encouraging.

More than two-thirds of NewsTarget readers -- 67.8 percent -- reported improving their food shopping and consumption choices. Now, part of me is wondering why it is not 100 percent, but the answer may be that one-third of our readers already have really good health habits when it comes to shopping for groceries or consuming food. But still, to be able to help improve the food choices of two-thirds of the readers is a significant achievement and all the credit, of course, goes to the readers who made their own choices and changed their own habits in order to improve their food consumption patterns.

Imagine if we could get two-thirds of the entire nation, to improve its food purchasing and consumption habits. We would see a dramatic decline in chronic disease and health care costs. All this is showing the power of information to make positive changes in people's lives. This information is helping people make a difference. It is lowering their health care costs, no doubt, and it is improving their longevity and quality, and you'll see that reflected in the additional numbers here.

Given all the information now available on the health benefits of vitamin D and natural sunlight exposure, it is encouraging to learn that 56 percent of readers have now taken steps to experience more sunlight. Sunlight is, quite simply, the single most powerful healing therapy available to us. It's available free of charge. It is essentially infinite in duration, and through the creation of vitamin D, it helps prevent and reverse many types of cancer and other chronic diseases, including schizophrenia, depression, osteoporosis and even gum disease.

The fact that 56 percent of NewsTarget readers are taking steps to boost their exposure to sunlight is very encouraging. This means that more than half our readers are going to be healthier because of their exposure to sunlight, and their vitamin D deficiencies will be helped or even completely eliminated. They will likely give birth to healthier infants if they are currently expecting, and if they have darker skin, they will experience phenomenal health benefits as a result of increasing their exposure to ultraviolet radiation, so that's a very encouraging number.

Similarly, 58.2 percent have increased their consumption of nutritional supplements and more than two-thirds, 67.3 percent, have increased their consumption of superfoods like spirulina, quinoa and blueberries. This is a very encouraging number, because again, it's showing the power of information to reach people in a way that motivates them to actually make these positive changes.

Simply making the decision to eat more blueberries on a day-to-day basis can have phenomenal long-term impacts on your health, but if you don't know about the power of blueberries to lower LDL cholesterol, for example, or to help protect the eyes from macular degeneration, then you don't have the information to make that decision. So getting out information that shows the healing power of these foods is a very important part of this health-enhancing equation, and I am ecstatic to learn that two-thirds of our readers are taking these steps to boost their consumption of superfoods.

NewsTarget readers are sharing the wealth

Just how powerful is this information? An astonishing 85.2 percent of our readers report sharing this information with others. They've forwarded emails to their family, friends or co-workers, or they've printed out articles and handed them to those who they thought could benefit from them. Eighty-five percent are sharing this information. That speaks to the word-of-mouth power of this information and the level of excitement people have about helping others improve their health.

You know, information that heals can be very exciting and it can give people new hope when they thought they were dying of a chronic disease, or if they thought they couldn't reverse their situation because their doctor told them it was hopeless. But now, suddenly, they learn about superfoods, or they learn that their side effects were actually caused by their prescription drugs, or they learn about the power of sunlight or physical exercise or oxygen therapy or basic nutrition, including minerals like magnesium and zinc, and then they are empowered, they are hopeful, they are positive and they start to get well. That's how exciting this information really can be, and that's why people love to share it with others. So, this 85.2 percent number humbles me, because to me it says this information is useful enough that people -- on their own -- want to share it with others. So, thank you, all of you who took this survey, for indicating that this information is valuable. I'll do my best to keep producing valuable and relevant content that can improve your quality of life.

Readers are consuming less junk food and more healing foods

With water being one of the most important healing substances in our universe, I was also very pleased to see 50.1 percent of readers reporting they've increased their consumption of water after reading this information. That's a great number. Half of the people are boosting their water intake. Since chronic dehydration can lead to the misdiagnosis of many different diseases, including arthritis, asthma, high blood pressure and so on, I'm very happy to see that water consumption is on the rise. I don't know if people are just drinking more water than they used to or if they are switching drinks from, for example, soft drinks to water or milk to water, but as long as people's water consumption goes up, then we are going to see some health benefits across the population. The fact is that most people live their lives in a state of chronic dehydration, and they end up treating the symptoms of that dehydration with prescription drugs or even radical surgery.

Almost 54 percent of readers also reported boosting their consumption of omega-3 oils. Again, this is simply the result of awareness. When people are aware of the healing benefits of omega-3 oils, they naturally and automatically want to increase their consumption of them. So we're showing that more than half our readers have boosted that consumption, and of course, given all the numerous health benefits of omega-3 oils, it would be no surprise to learn that this would improve blood chemistry. Their diabetes would be helped or reversed, they would help prevent cancer with the consumption of these oils, and their brains and nervous systems would function far more efficiently following the ingestion of these oils, so this must have tremendous long-term health benefits to our readers.

Not quite as many, but still a large number of readers -- 40.5 percent, to be precise -- report an increase in their consumption of whole grains. I'm not big on recommending grains in general, but whole grains are certainly better than refined grains, and the fact that whole grains are getting more press these days, combined with the fact that manufacturers are reformulating their foods to use whole grains rather than refined grains, means that whole grain consumption is going up. This is a very encouraging number because when people eat more whole grains, they have better nutrition. They get more B vitamins and more minerals like calcium, magnesium and zinc... they also get more fiber and healthy oils. These are all nutrients attainable from the whole grain, but that are hardly present at all in refined grain. That's why I'm very happy to see this number at 40.5 percent.

Giving up unhealthy foods and beverages

Now here's a number that's astonishing: Forty-three point one percent reported quitting their consumption of soft drinks. I've written many articles about the dangers of soft drinks, including articles that looked at the link between soft drink consumption and diabetes, loss of bone density and even mental depression. Apparently the word is getting out and people are changing their habits and actually quitting soft drinks. I'm very pleased to see this and astonished that it's 43.1 percent. I'm glad the number is that high and I hope I can do my part to help make the number higher in the future.

We will all do well to stop drinking soft drinks, because they really have no nutritional benefit to the human body whatsoever. In fact, they are a detriment to human health, and in a sane society the marketing of soft drinks to children would never be legally allowed. Similarly, the fact that we have soft drink vending machines in our public schools dispensing this liquid candy to children is obscene. Why this would be allowed in our institutions of learning is one of the great mysteries of corporate influence in modern society.

Moving on, a little more than 18 percent reported giving up red meat. That's an encouraging number. It's almost one out of every five, and many of our readers may not have been eating red meat to begin with, so this is an encouraging trend. Obviously, I would like to see that number higher, but to a lot of people, giving up red meat is a difficult thing. They're used to those hamburgers and hotdogs and bacon, and they haven't learned about the dangers of how processed meat contains known cancer-causing chemicals, so they continue to eat them and feed them to their children, oblivious to the real harm being caused by those meats. I think that, in time, as they learn about the dangers of these products, they will greatly reduce their red meat consumption.

Similarly, 22.6 percent have given up dairy products. I think dairy products offer great nutrition for baby cows, but terrible nutrition for humans, adult or child. Dairy products, in my view, account for a huge number of cases of asthma, constipation, sinus congestion, acne, weight gain and heart disease, not to mention type-1 diabetes. Thus the reduction of consumption of cow's milk is, in my view, a very important achievement for the health of our readers. Good job, folks. Remember, you don't need to drink from a cow to be a healthy human.

Avoiding medically unjustified surgeries

Lastly, 16.1 percent reported avoiding a surgical procedure and making positive lifestyle changes instead. This is a very important number because it shows that people can take control of their health outcome. By using nutrition and lifestyle changes, they can make positive decisions that eliminate the need for surgery in the first place. Given that considerably more than half of the surgical procedures performed in the United States are medically unjustified, this is an encouraging development.

A lot of surgeries simply have no justification whatsoever, and many surgical procedures have not been safety tested or proved by any testing body whatsoever. They're just performed on patients as if they were guinea pigs, and many of the results are simply unacceptable. For example, coronary bypass surgery is largely a hoax. It does nothing to help the patient in the long run, but it sure does generate a lot of money for surgeons, hospitals and anesthesiologists. So, even though this number is relatively small -- 16.1 percent -- I'm glad to see it's there. I'm glad to see that people are making positive decisions that alter the dynamics; taking them out of the realm of dangerous surgery and into a realm where the body can heal itself.

So, that's the wrap-up for the "healthy actions" section of this survey. We will discuss more survey results in the subsequent article.