The rise in type 2 diabetes can be explained by a lack of exercise, too many carbs (especially high fructose corn syrup), low levels of vitamin D, obesity, and other relatively simple factors.

Chlorination of water is good from the pipes to your tap (reduces many water born diseases) but is aesthetically unpleasing and probably has some health risk associated with drinking it. Water filters are relatively cheap, and I use both reverse-osmosis and activated carbon to filter our water.

Organic dairy and grass-fed beef? I think it's a good idea. We usually buy organic milk, and sometimes buy grass-fed meat.

Autism? There is no good evidence that profound autism has become epidemic. There is increased recognition and diagnosis of Aspergers disease (high functioning or subtle autism) - but we don't have baseline information about how common (but undiagnosed) it was in the past.

As far as magnesium stearate goes, by all means stay away from it if you consistently link it to any symptoms. I haven't seen evidence that it is generally harmful, but people can have reactions to the most benign ingredients. Some people can't eat dairy, citrus, peanuts, wheat or shrimp because they react to it. All good foods, all potentially fatal.

I agree with what much of apollog posted, particularly with regard to certain disorders like autism that likely have not seen epidemic-sized increases, but are recognized and diagnosed more frequently.

In past times regarded as the "good old days" people thought nothing of using lead-based paints, radium watch dials and arsenic as an insecticide. Those were some powerhouse "toxins". There are legitimate concerns about certain low-level contaminants in foods, supplements and medicines, but a good portion of the hoopla is not justified by any good evidence.

And by all means, avoid magnesium stearate if you feel you must, but it's unlikely to be the cause of health complaints (maybe zinc or some other element in your supplement was to blame for your symptoms, or you really did have a low-level infection).

Link to previous discussion on this subject.

Apollog and Eric_oh are right, when it comes to autism, the backlash to this fake epidemic has put us at risk of several real epidemics in vaccine preventable diseases (not to suggest that vaccines do not have side effects, because they do, autism is not one of them) and have given some good simple advice regarding the other aspects of you posts and if you follow their advice and just stay clear of magnesium stearate nothing really bad will happen to you as a result. Perhaps however you should consider two possibilities with these things that you feel are deleterious to your health. Firstly you should consider the placebo effect; Samuel Hahnemann, the physician who invented Homeopathy took a large dose of quinine to test his theory that compound behave oppositely in small and large doses, he found that he got the symptoms of Malairia, chills and convusions and cold sweats, he believed before hand that quinine had these symptoms, however he was mistaken, and since he thought quinine would have that effect on his body that is the effect that he experienced, none of us are immune from placebo effects. The second is confirmation bias, You felt bad and were taking pills with MagStearate in them, but do you know for a fact that you have never felt just fine while taking pills with Magstearate in them? I would imagine that like me you have a million little things going on in your life at one time, maybe a neighbor sprayed pesticides to get rid of moths and you got a few lungs full, maybe you got a minor infection, maybe some unconscious stress was getting to you and these pills became a scape goat for your worry. stranger things have been known to occur. The very nature of the human condition makes the suggestions I just put fourth sound like an attack, and you are likely to feel some hostility towards the notion of admitting to the same frailties the rest of us have, but if you are truly concerned about doing what is best for your health you should consider them long and hard. Also Carbon block filters will take the Hypochlorite ions out of your water with out taking out the minerals that your body needs, I would recommend them over RO.