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