Warning: Eat This, You'll Get Fat & Sick

I just read this really interesting article that I was sent a link to by the Organic Consumers Association titled the same as the title of this blog post. Wow--what an amazing point they drive home. We worry about what IS on a label, but how about the dangerous "ingredients" that are not listed??? There is no way I can paraphrase what they said and get the point across as well, so I am just going to copy and paste their article here.

Warning: Eat This, You'll Get Fat & Sick
By Alexis Baden-Mayer
Organic Consumers Association, Aug 26, 2010
Straight to the Source

It takes a food chemist to translate the eight-syllable words commonly found on ingredients lists into plain English, but many of the most dangerous substances found in food today are additives, contaminants, or packaging and processing aids that don't get listed on the label. Here are a few hidden dangers that should be revealed to consumers:

Acrylamide - a chemical linked to cancer that forms in starchy food cooked at high temperatures, such as French fries and potato chips

Bisphenol A - a chemical linked to hormone disruption and heart disease that leaches from the lining of canned foods

E. coli O157:H7 - the "hamburger disease," the leading cause of acute kidney failure in U.S. children, is an intestinal pathogen transmitted from factory-farmed, corn-fed cows to humans when fecal matter gets in food

Colibacillosis - a bacterial disease that infects chickens imprisoned in filthy, overcrowded, intensive confinement factory farms

Campylobacter - the most common cause of neuromuscular paralysis in the United States, is a bacterial food poison that contaminates a majority of store-bought chicken

Salmonella - a food borne illness that kills more Americans than any other, is directly related to CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) and to contaminated feed containing blood, slaughterhouse waste, and manure

Mercury - a toxin that can harm an unborn baby or young child's developing nervous system, is found in nearly all fish and shellfish, especially Shark, Swordfish, King Mackerel and Tilefish

Trans-fat - hydrogenated vegetable oils that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, the cause of 1 of every 2.9 deaths
Ingredients produced through the use of cloning, genetic engineering or nanotechnology

Ingredients that contain the residues of pesticides, including organophosphates, which are linked to neurological disorders like ADHD

Packaging aids like 2-methylnaphthalene which triggered the Kellogg's cereal recall

Solvents like hexane, a neurotoxin that is a by-product of gasoline refining used to process soy-based ingredients and cooking oils

Crazy stuff, huh? It really makes you think...

=o)
Jen

Several reasons to eat Organic Meat!

Here is an interesting compilation of articles (see link at the end of this post) that discuss the result of the industrialization of our meat products--not a happy ending.
The relationship between E. Coli and grain fed cows is something that I, even AFTER having a daughter that was infected with this bacteria, and my husband, who has worked in the Food Safety industry for over 15 years, were unaware of! The relationship between a ruminant's diet (which affects the pH of their stomachs) and the bacteria in their gut that thrive there can be extremely dangerous. Not until I watched Food Inc. did I learn (and research more) about the correlation between feeding cows corn, a grain that they are not designed to digest, and the deadly bacteria, E. Coli. There are many reasons for this change of diet and thus the industrialization of the meat industry--mainly, quantity over quality and MONEY become the main issues. If you would like more information about all of this, I suggest you read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He provides a lot of incredible and unbelievable information about our "food chain". You will definitely walk away thinking about things you've never thought about before.
















Please check out the articles below. Whether you agree or not, it is still very interesting and I feel like there is a lot of validity to be found here.
This also helps to explain my passion for all of this. Since watching Food Inc., I have not eaten ANY meat that has not been organic and in the case of beef, grassfed. It is personal to me as the emergence of E. Coli, a bacterial infection that most likely was derived from cattle, has affected and infected my family. The inhumane treatment of feedlot animals is something I find truly disgusting and unsanitary. I could go on and on, but I'll save that for another post! ;o)

http://www.eatwild.com/foodsafety.html

=o)
Jen

The Times They Are a-Changin'

There is so much I want to say, so much I want to share about this "food journey" we have been travelling along, that I just don't know where to begin.
I found this quote yesterday and thought it was so fitting:

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land,
And don't criticize what you can't understand...

~Bob Dylan

This is an excerpt from the song "The Times They Are a-Changin'". It really got me thinking. People are so quick to criticize and condemn you for the changes you make in your life even, in this case, when it is a positive one. Until you have walked in my shoes and watched your child struggle for her life, it is probably difficult to understand the helplessless and pain that it's possible to feel... I am not asking anyone to change their lives, but just want to share my journey and experiences in hopes that maybe I have some knowledge that others are unaware of and would appreciate knowing. There is SO much I just didn't know. Watching Food Inc. was definitely the catalyst to this change in our eating habits. Watching Barbara Kowalcyk on Food Inc. (who my husband had the pleasure of meeting the day Food Inc. aired on PBS) share her devastating experience of losing her 2.5 year old son to E. Coli and HUS was just so sad--the same diseases my daughter had at age 3 that we are so lucky she survived... So I guess all I am asking and hoping is that people have an open mind to change--change can be good! And knowledge can be good. Ignorance, unfortunately, is not bliss.

So with that said...I am ready to begin sharing recipes and tips and all that I have learned and am learning and if you have something to teach me, I am ready to listen with an open mind!

Thanks for stopping by! Comments are welcome!

=o)
Jen