Monday, July 14, 2014
ARTICLE: You Are What You Eat: What Exactly ARE You Eating Though? Part 2: Organic Vs. All Natural Vs. Monsanto GMO
Image Source~©MELANIE NEER~Home grown Tomatoes
ABSTRACT: With the vast variety of food choices we have, one needs to know the difference in what constitutes organically grown foods versus all natural and what GMOs mean
CONTENT:
This article is the second of a series of articles in which I explore as many aspects of the food industry as possible. If you wish to read Part 1 you may read it here.
Organically Grown And Raised Foods:
We all naturally want to eat as healthy as possible, however, with so many foods available to us and how they are grown and raised can get confusing, we therefore wonder, which is the safest, purest and least processed and manipulated? It's probably a no-brainer that organic and humanely raised foods are the way to go. But what does organic really mean? In a nutshell, it means that produce and crops are grown without any chemical pesticides, and that farm animals raised for human consumption are raised without injecting the farm animals any growth hormones and antibiotics; also, farm animals that are humanely raised are free ranging, meaning not cooped up in deplorable conditions as they are in farm factories and are fed diets more consistent and natural to them; i.e. cows are grass fed, as opposed to being fed Monsanto GMO corn.
One of the ironies is that what we call organically raised foods nowadays was how food used to be grown. I did a little research into all aspects of how food is grown and raised and was surprised to learn that the concept of commercial farming where chemical pesticides where used actually goes back hundreds of years, while the movement in growing and raising foods again organically only started in the 1920s. (1) With the continued rise in stronger and more toxic pesticides over the years, such as DDT (now banned in the USA), more and more people wanted a return to the organic means of raising foods. In 1990 our government officially passed the Organic Foods Production Act to give specific clarifications as to want constituted what was considered organic. (2) It wasn't until 2002 however, that the USDA designated a special label that has to appear on any and all foods termed organic. (3).
How does one tell if foods are truly "organic"? There are several ways. On any produce grown, whether commercially or organically raised one will be aware of those sticky labels often attached to fresh produce. The first number on those labels gives one a hint how the food was raised. In fact years ago I came across a rhyme one can easily remember.
3 or 4 is a bore (commercially raised)
8 you should hate (Monsanto GMO)
9 is fine (organic)
Bottom line, if one comes upon any grown produce with a sticky label with the first number being "9" it means it's organic. Meats from farm animals humanely raised and not via farm factories will also have a label. As far as processed foods, which can range from anything to soups, sauces, pastas, cereals and so forth, and have all of it's ingredients organically raised will have the USDA label on it. To give two great examples: the company Amy's Kitchen has a whole vast array of processed foods in which all the ingredients are all organic and non-GMO. Another company that has a whole line of foods that are organic is Muir Glen.
There is of course however one great major hiccup about organic foods: price. As much as we would all like to eat healthier and perhaps more organic, prices of organic foods may literally strangle the average person's food budget. To cite two examples, one can get a rather gigantic box of Cheerios cereal for about $4.99 in any of the stores near me, yet an all organic type of cereal and of a distinctly smaller size will be two or three times the the cost. Another example: one can get a can of condensed Campbell Chicken Soup for about $1.99, while Glen Muir's Lentil soup, of which I've had, and not condensed is $3.99. We can only hope that perhaps in the future, as more and more people demand organically raised foods, that prices will come down.
All Natural Foods:
When one goes food shopping, one will often notice that on the labels of many processed foods, it may say "all natural" ingredients. This however, a misnomer and can fool the person into thinking that they are perhaps getting organic ingredients. A big resounding no! As I've indicated, unless the ingredients are clearly labeled as organic, and has the USDA label to indicate so, it is by no means organic. The only reason a processed food may say "all natural" is due to the fact that it won't have any kind of chemical preservatives or additives such as MSG, food dyes, BHA or BHT. Otherwise the so-called natural ingredients are commercially grown foods, and consequently foods laden with pesticides and/or contain Monsanto GMOs. Foods may also be enhanced such as In the case of commercially grown tomatoes where most are not vine ripened but instead gassed with ethylene.
Monsanto GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms):
If ever there were food products one should avoid completely, it has to be Monsanto GMO raised foods, or as many have come to call "Frankenfoods". I shall in the future devote a whole article about GMOs, but if you don't know what GMO is, basically it's foods and animals that have had their DNA altered in a laboratory.
As a company Monsanto has been around since 1901 and has invented a myriad of highly toxic chemicals including Agent Orange, PCBs and Roundup, however it wasn't until the 1990s that GMO seeds were introduced and now is the leading producer of GMO seeds worldwide. The most commonly affected crops that are corn in which over 80% of all corn grown is GMO; over 90% of all soy is GMO, and also alfalfa, canola, cotton, papaya, sugar beets, just to name a few. What is so wrong with GMO seeds? They in themselves contain toxic pesticides, which when we consume the food in question we are exposing ourselves to the pesticides, and much worse than pesticides that are sprayed on crops. While inconclusive there have been a few studies involving rats fed GMO corn where the rats have grown cancerous tumors. (4)
The world however is starting to protest against Monsanto and GMO seeds, and in essence are refusing to grow any more such crops; Hungary went even a step further and even destroyed all GMO corn crops. Many European countries allow food products to at least label ingredients that are GMO, however, with a few exceptions and in very few states here in America, no such labeling exists. Why? I think you may guess: Monsanto has a virtual stranglehold on our foods, how they are grown, and how food products are labeled. If you're wondering why the FDA, which is supposed to be the watchdog over the safety of our foods hasn't stepped up is due to one reason: many former Monsanto employees work for the FDA.
So back to the basic premise. If one wants to eat as healthy as possible, organic is the way to go. Don't be fooled by foods that say all natural as they many contain commercially grown foods and GMO ingredients, and this would include any type of corn or soy product (corn oil, cornstarch, cornmeal, soybean oil, soy lecithin, etc.)
Image Source: ©Melanie Neer~~Home grown tomatoes I grew myself
Sources To Further Read:
Articles About Organic Farming:
Where Did Organic Farming Start? (1)
Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (2)
Food sticker labels
How To Read Food Sticker Labels
Amy's Kitchen Foods:
Muir Glen:
Muir Glen Website
Monsanto GMO:
Hungary Destroys GMO Corn Crops
Does GMO Corn Cause Tumors? (4)
Commercial Faming/Pesticides
Commercial Agriculture Facts and Figures
Friday, July 11, 2014
ARTICLE: The Health Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS): From Increasing Medical Risks to Possible Mercury Links
ABSTRACT: High Fructose Corn Syrup is found in a large variety of beverages and foods, but how safe is it?
CONTENT: Only a few days ago, several articles came out about the new health dangers about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFSC) as tests were conducted in several products containing this ingredient and it was found that there were levels of mercury in certain foods due to this added ingredient. I was initially going to do an article just about this new health warning, but first I decided to look up information about High Fructose Corn Syrup in general.
What is High Fructose Corn Syrup?
First, I was curious just what High Fructose Corn Syrup was to begin with, as this is an ingredient that is found in practically every processed food going, even those foods that aren't that sweet to the taste, such as snack crackers like Wheat Thins or all salad dressings. High Fructose Corn Syrup is indeed a naturally made product, made from milled corn that is first made into cornstarch, that same type of cornstarch one uses to thicken foods such as gravies. That cornstarch is then processed to make a basic corn syrup, and then further treated with a whole array of enzyemes, such as aplha-amylase, Glucoamylase and Xylose isomerase. (1) There are several types of High Fructose Corn Syrups that can be produced, from HFCS-90, which is the purest and sweetest form. HFCS-55 which is the type used in sodas, and HFCS-45, the less sweet form which is used in most other processed foods such as juices, breads, crackers and so forth. (2) While High Fructose Corn Syrup was first developed in 1927 by Richard Off. Marshalle and Earl P. Kooi, it wasn't used extensively in processed foods until the mid-1970s. Supposedly one of the reasons HFCS gained in popularity as a replacement for regular table sugar was that it was found that food and drinks products made with HFCS not only had the same sweet taste as regular sugar, but had longer shelf lives, and more importantly, processed foods could be made less expensively than using refined table sugar.
Now many people might be confused between the two kinds of fructose, thinking they are similar or the same due to the fructose name itself. True fructose, in it's purest form is a type of natural glucose or sugar that is found in all fruits and vegetables. High Fructose Corn Syrup, on the other hand, while also from a natural source, that is corn, is a heavily processed, manufactured, and chemically altered form of glucose, in other words, a scientist's concoction.
You may be asking yourself, what foods contain High Fructose Corn Syrup? When I started researching into this topic I couldn't believe all the processed foods and drinks that contain this ingredient, the list was absolutely staggering and mind-boggling. Yes, of course I expected HFCS to be in sugary tasting beverages, but I found listed food items one would never guess containing this ingredient. I list here just a partial listing of foods or drinks with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Ketchups
Jams and Jellies
Cool Whip
Cereals
Chocolate Syrup
Cookies
Canned Fruits
Sodas
Enhanced Flavored Waters
Wheat Thins,
Ritz Crackers
Candy Bars (including Health Food and Granola Types)
Breads, Rolls (especially white)
All Juices (except Welch's Grape and Mott's Organic Apple Juice)
Pancake Syrups
Miracle Whip
Salad Dressings
Heinz Relishes
Some Soups (such as Campbell's Tomato)
Yogurts
Most Spaghetti Sauces
I was able to make up this listing, not only by looking at the photograph that illustrated the "No Sweet Deal With High-Fructose Corn Syrup" article by Dr. Mike Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz(3), but by simply looking at certain drinks and foods I had in my own home: Tropicana Fruit Punch, Smucker's Raspberry Jam, Heinz's Ketchup, Wishbone Italian Salad Dressing. I was even amazed to discover that my cough syrup contained HFCS!
Now if one was to go by all the information that is presented in the
HFCSfacts.com website, and there is quite a lot of information there, one is led to believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup is the greatest invention since perhaps the wheel itself. Then why are there so many reports about the health risks? When one starts doing research in general about High Fructose Corn Syrup, for health consciousness sake one wouldn't want to go near this stuff with a fifty foot pole.
What are the health risks with HFCS?
As one article points out, if consumed in small amounts, HFCS would probably have no detrimental affects(4). However, that is for small amounts, but unknowingly we have been consuming amounts of HFCS in just about every processed food going, as indicated in my listing. Given time, this large consumption of HFCS can lead to weight gain, raising cholesterol levels, diabetes, hypertension, and there is some indication of triggering off cirrhosis of the liver, formation of kidney stones, gout, and even accelerates the aging process in people in general.(5)
A New Danger About HFCS?
As if these potential health problems can arise from constant consumption of HFCS isn't enough, now there is a new health warning, which unfortunately that HFCSfacts website seems to be downplaying, and that is the recent discovery of finding traces of mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup. So far only a few food and beverages have been tested and had traces of mercury in them due to the HFCS used, but one part of the processing of HFCS, besides the enzymes previously mentioned, is also the use of caustic soda and hydrochloric acid which have been mixed vats with solutions of mercury in them . (6)
So far the list of food and beverages tested for and found with traces of mercury is rather small and include such processed foods as:
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce
Minute Maid Berry Punch
Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink
Quaker Oatmeal to Go Bars
Hunt's Ketchup
For a full listing of the foods tested that had traces of mercury in them due to the HFCS ingredient, go to the Webmd.com Article(7)
What Can One Do?
After reading so many sources about the detrimental health hazards HFCS can trigger in general and now with these new findings of the traces of mercury found in some foods that use this rather "toxic" ingredient of HFCS, how are we to know first of all, if all foods containing it will have mercury in them? I'm just betting more and more foods that are to be tested will find mercury in them and lets face it, I'm not a big fan of our FDA as they seem to take forever in testing our food products in general.
So what can one do? First of all, I plan to make a real conscious effort and read every label of every processed food item I buy from now on. If I see it has HFCS in it, no thank you, I'm going to pass on it and get something equivalent that doesn't have it, and yes, that might mean giving up on some of my favorite foods. For instance instead of getting the Tropicana Fruit or Berry Punches I'll purchase Welch's Grape juice which does not have any HFCS in it at all. Also, I plan to buy more organic type foods which use purer ingredients in the first place. And no, they don't have to be high-priced organic brands. Even something as simple as a spaghetti sauce, such as the newer line of Organic Prego Sauces do not have HFCS in them. Lastly, If I do buy sweetened processed foods I'll buy the ones that list either sugar or molasses as part of the ingredients label rather than HFCS.
Resources:
Wiki High Fructose Corn Syrup(1)
Questions/Answers About HFCS(2)