Food

Please note that this section contains my personal notes from my readings on this topic.

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My notes on the environmental toxins in food are below, which are not comprehensive but just a collection of what I’m learning as I encounter this topic in my readings. I will be revising and updating all my notes on this blog as I learn more.

In this section:

• Pesticides in Animal Protein
• Dioxins
• Bovine Growth Hormone
• Mercury
• Solutions

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Animal Protein Contains Environmental Toxins

Pesticides are used on crops to prevent bugs from destroying them.  If it’s a crop grown for us to eat, we wash them off, getting rid of some chemicals.  If it’s a crop used to feed animals, the pesticides are not washed off.  And unlike crops grown for us to eat, crops grown for animals to eat have no limits on the amount of pesticides that can be used.  More than one billion pounds of pesticides are used each year in this country.  And approximately 80% are used on the four major animal-feed crops.  Pesticides are also sprayed directly onto the animals themselves to ward off parasites, insects, rodents, and fungi so when we ingest the animals, we’re ingesting the pesticides… animals store these pesticides in their fat tissue and cells.  So when you eat meat, you’re ingesting a higher amount of pesticides than you would if you ate the pesticide-treated food directly.

And unfortunately, pesticides aren’t all we’re getting.  Herbicides, industrial wastes, PCBs, BFRs, BDFEs — they’re polluting our waterways and affecting our food supply — but, again, the fatty tissues of animals attract and concentrate these chemicals…

Just one of these chemicals on its own would be scary enough.  But the abundance and complex interaction of so many can wreak havoc on our endocrine, hormonal, neurological, immunological, and reproductive systems.  Imagine what these toxins can do to developing fetuses.

Prenatal exposure has caused altered sexual behavior, like demasculinization and feminization; behavioral problems; learning disabilities; hyperactivity; under-activity; memory problems; growth retardation; delayed reflexes; reduced intelligence; limb deformities; heart defects; penis deformities; undescended testicles; reduced size of penis and testicles; eye inflammation; and hyperpigmentation.

Infants and children are also at a much higher risk than adults because their organs are still growing and developing, and they eat and drink more than adults in relation to their body weights (so their exposure to toxins can be higher, relatively speaking).  Destruction, disruptions, and alterations during these delicate developmental periods can cause permanent and irreversible damage, especially because their metabolic pathways and immune systems are immature.  There is an increased risk for childhood cancers and for neurological diseases later in life, like dementia and Parkinson’s.

– Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven (2005) by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin; pages 99 – 101

Dioxins

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science released a public report in June 2003, warning the public about the cancer risk from consuming food containing dioxin and other polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs). The Institute of Medicine advises the federal government on medical matters and appoints experts to research and produce these reports. The report concluded with the statement: The most direct way for an individual or a population to reduce dietary intake of dioxins is to reduce their consumption of dietary fat, especially from animal sources that are known to contain higher levels of these compounds.

This report from the National Academy of Science came out only one day after the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the amount of dioxin released into the environment by industry increased to 328 pounds in 2001, up from 220 pounds the year earlier. The EPA added that 6.16 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment in 2001. The EPA explained that these compounds persist in the environment and build up in the bodies of farm animals that eat contaminated feed or grass. While many of these toxic chemical compounds are resistant to degradation in the natural environment, they dissolve readily in oil and thus accumulate in the fatty tissues of fish, birds, and mammals. Humans are exposed predominantly by eating contaminated animal products. Animal products tested to be exceptionally high in these harmful compounds are catfish, lobster, mollusks, cheese, butter, and ice cream. Unborn children and breast-feeding infants are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of these chemicals.

–Disease-Proof Your Child (2005) by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.; pages 94-95

Mind Your Meat and Dairy. Really fatty sources contain dioxins and other nasty chemicals that can eventually be transferred to babies through breast milk — so slice off the fat and take your beef skinny.

– Healthy Child Healthy World, page 16

Bovine Growth Hormone

BGH milk is banned in Australia, New Zealand, all of the European Union, Canada, Japan, and every other industrialized country in the world. Both the World Trade Organization and The United Nations Food Standards Body refuse to endorse the hormone’s safety. But BGH is legal in the United States. It’s so baffling that we’re supposed to be one of the most advanced nations in the world.

– Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven (2005) by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin; pages 73 – 75

From Skinny Bitch: Bun in the Oven (2005) by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin:

• Nowadays, cows are injected with bovine growth hormone (BGH). (BGH milk is also referred to as rBGH — recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone — or GE — genetically engineered.) Fifty years ago, the average milk production rate of a cow was 2,000 pounds a year. Today, the top producers provide up to 50,000 pounds a year! This is far from natural. (Imagine being injected with some crazy-ass hormone that would make your boobs pump out twenty-five times more milk than they would on their own.) — page 71
• Dr. Samuel Epstein, professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois Chicago, has authored or coauthored thirteen books, published nearly 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and is the leading international expert on BGH. He’s also an internationally recognized authority on the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, the causes of environmental pollutants. Dr. Epstein literally wrote “the book” on BGH: What’s in Your Milk? – page 72
  • “Dr. Epstein received a package that was sent anonymously. Its contents appeared to be records stolen directly from the FDA files — confidential data from BGH trials. And they included information that had been previously undisclosed, revealing a wide range of serious veterinary dangers associated with BGH. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the shit surrounding BGH is every bit as shady as aspartame’s. Especially because Monsanto, the same company that owned NutraSweet, is the giant behind BGH… Dr. Epstein sent copies of the incriminating documents to Congressman John Conyers, who publicly stated, “Monsanto and the FDA have chosen to suppress and manipulate animal health test data… in efforts to approve commercial use of rBGH.” — page 73
  • Both Monsanto and the FDA knowingly and falsely claimed that:
    1. There is no difference between milk from BGH cows and untreated cows.
       1. According to Dr. Epstein, “GE milk is entirely different from natural milk: nutritionally, biochemically, pharmacologically, and immunologically.
    2. BGH is harmless to cows.
       1. Its own package insert lists sixteen harmful health effects. And studies showed that cows treated with BGH had chronic inflammation of internal organs, ulcerating injection site reactions, and deep carcass damage. Almost half the injected cows became infertile! And the majority suffered from anemia and chronic mastitis — a bacterial infection resulting from inflamed udders. So what does all this mean? Cows injected with BGH are also treated with antibiotics and other drugs, many unapproved and illegal. During a single lactation period, one cow received 120 drug treatments! All lactating mammals excrete toxins through their milk, including hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and chemicals. So when you consume dairy products from cows treated with BGH, you’re ingesting all that shit, too! By the way, approximately 70 percent of all the antiobiotics made in the United States each year are administered to farm animals, causing antibiotic resistance in humans.
    3. BGH is safe for human consumption.
       1. BGH milk has high levels of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF – 1), which has been consistently linked to breast, colon, and prostate cancers… A study revealed that women who consumed meat and / or dairy products were five times more likely to conceive twins compared with vegan women. Five times! In a recent issue of theJournal of Reproductive Medicine, Dr. Gary Steinman, who conducted the study, argued that IGF – 1 might be the reason. IGF – 1 is a protein that gets released by the liver in response to BGH. Studies show that the protein increases ovulation.

Mercury

When mercury can’t get out of the body, it travels to the brain, changes into inorganic mercury, clings to brain tissue, and damages the nervous system. Mercury doesn’t cling to just any part of the brain; it goes exactly to those areas involved in autism: the cerebellum, amygdala, and hippocampus.

– What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations (September 2001) by Stephanie Cave, M.D., F.A.A.F.P. with Deborah Mitchell; pages 61 – 62

Find Safer Fish

Many large species, including swordfish, king mackerel and tuna — may contain elevated levels of mercury, which can upset normal fetal brain growth.

• Chunk light tuna is preferable to white albacore because it typically has lower levels of mercury (it comes from smaller fish). The EPA suggests that pregnant women can safely eat up to 12 ounces of chunk light tuna per week. Keep in mind that you’ll want to weigh that number against your total fish consumption.
• Use the Environmental Working Group’s tuna calculator at ewg.org/tunacalculator to find out how much might be best for you. The Environmental Working Group also has a pocket size list that categorizes seafood by safety.
• To get more of those omega-3s that are so great for your baby’s brain, pick smaller fish lower on the food chain, like sardines and mackerel.
• Or opt for nonfish sources (that are actually high in omega-3s) like flax seeds and walnuts.
• Farmed fish should also be consumed cautiously because the diets they’re raised on tend to give them high levels of PCBs. When ordering salmon, go wild — meaning wild Pacific. (Healthy Child Healthy World, p 17)

Mercury Is Present in High Fructose Corn Syrup

There is more than one reason to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) but it now seems that the presence of mercury is yet another reason to avoid consuming HFCS.  As was reported in USA Today online in 2009 January 28:

“Almost half of tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contained mercury, which was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first- or second-highest labeled ingredient, according to two new U.S. studies.

HFCS has replaced sugar as the sweetener in many beverages and foods such as breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS, but teens and other high consumers can take in 80% more HFCS than average.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply,” the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.”

Read about another source of mercury: Mercury in Vaccinations.