(Exercising Your Mind) In December of 2005, I decided to stop being a hypocrite and actively investigate the substances that I read from the back of food packaging, and use this information when making food buying choices, just as I encourage my weight management and fitness clients to practice.

This new line of research has led me to some alarming discoveries.

In 2004, one of my fellow researchers brought to my attention an artificial hormone called recombinant bovine somototropin(rBGH / rBST or Posilac).

It is a Bovine Growth Hormone made by a company by the name of Monsanto.

Monsanto is also the company that developed Terminator Seed Technology, which genetically engineers a mature plant’s seed to sterilize itself by destroying its own embryos.

This way, farmers must buy new seeds over and over again in order to grow food rather than saving seeds from the crops as done since the domestication of crops.

The rBGH however, is just as disturbing.

The scientists who evaluated rBGH for Monsanto cited cancer and serious weight gain as the human health implications related to this product as well as making the cows terribly ill.

When two investigative reporters then working for FOX News wanted to air the story about this they were fired, then sued FOX under Florida’s Whistle Blower Status, won a $464,000 settlement and then had it overturned when the Florida Judge concluded that it was not illegal for the News to Lie to viewers.

Thus, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is contaminating milk around the US and the World while most people are unaware of data they could be using to make informed decisions and purchases.

I don’t have an issue with drinking milk, eating eggs, meat or killing animals for food.

I do have a problem with toxic substances being injected into my potential food source, or toxic meat created by abuse and torture conditions.

I strictly monitor and very rarely eat any type of land-based Meat, only wild-caught fish, but not because of rBGH.

What really put me over the edge was an undercover video that I watched which was made by PETA and presented by Action for Animals called “Meet Your Meat”.

This video showed clandestine visits to several American Farms and featured sick animals being isolated without food or water to die slowly and many other tragic events.

I watched Farm Managers beat small pigs to death with Iron Gate Rods, shoot them in the back of the Head with Bolt Guns step on and kick them, hang Cows and Pigs upside down by their ankles, picked up by their feet and body-slammed into the concrete and slit their throats -ALL WHILE THEY WERE ALIVE AND CONSCIOUS!

This is a normal everyday occurrence on farms even though many of these practices are illegal as they should be.

Chickens and Turkeys fare no better.

Conventionally, Chickens are kept in what are known as battery cages. Six to eight birds are housed in each of these small confinements leaving only half of a square-foot for each bird.

I observed that frequently they get their wings, legs or heads caught in the sides, bottoms or other parts of the cage and die without access to food or water.

They are left to rot and decay amongst the other animals while maggots and disease breed amongst our egg-layers. Many of the birds I saw were sick and bleeding, pus leaking and featherless.

I saw the process of De-Beaking by a machine which very painfully heat-shears through the sensitive nerve-clustered beaks of small chicks.

I also learned of Molting, a process of starving the birds to force them to lay eggs or using the chemical Melengestrol acetate (MGA), a progestogen-like compound also used in cows.

“Free-Range” as they are so called, and many Organic Chickens receive their disease and torture in open barns.

What I saw was not much different here.

Farmers still chased and beat sick birds with metal sticks and simply stuffed their dead bodies into strategically placed buckets in the Free-Range area to die and decay.

Most still maintained their feathers but were cramped 100,000 or more into an area as large as a High-School Gymnasium.

Treat Depression Naturally at Home

Besides food, there are other products that manufacturers have decided must look a particularly aesthetic, albeit unnatural way.

This is why tartrazine a.k.a FD&C Yellow # 5 and other dyes are added to fruits, juice, vegetables, and even shampoo.

Some of these dyes may retard cognition and growth, cause nerve damage, birth defects and even contribute to  Alzheimer’s.

Some of these substances by themselves and in small quantities may be relatively harmless.

However, when blended with the arsenal of other synthetic chemicals in our everyday lives, we may be bombarding ourselves with disease producing compounds.

Hydrogenation, is the process of forcing hydrogen atoms into the holes of unsaturated fatty acids.

This is done with hydrogen gas under pressure with a metal catalyst at a temperature of 248-410 degrees F (120-210 C).

This may also be done with centrifugation, spinning the oils at super high-speeds.

It is a type of food processing which is widely used in many food products that contain any type of fat or oil.

Margarine is included in this category, and we have been told that margarine is healthier and safer than butter, but this is not true.

This process creates what we have now been widely warned about as Trans-Fatty Acids in the case of partial hydrogenation.

In fully hydrogenated oils and fats, saturated fat, primarily stearic acid is the end product.

Stearic Acid is one of the less harmful of its kind; but it is a saturated fat.

Usually, Trans-Fats and Saturated Fats are not good for the body, may contribute to atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, high cholesterol and subsequently heart attacks and strokes.

Even some types of material used for storage and cosmetics such as Aluminum, have been implicated in Breast Cancer from the many brands of deodorant containing this metal being absorbed into the lymph nodes of the mammary-plexus, and other aluminum contaminants in aerosol spray, soda and beer cans; may be one of the contributers to Alzheimers by altering the hydrogen bonding properties of proteins creating amyloid structures.

I don’t appreciate the fact that shopping has become a mission unto itself but I do recognize how much healthier my mind and body feels and performs with real nutrition fueling it.

-H A

References:

USDA (publications)

The Corporation, DVD Documentary-2004

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1728

http://diet-studies.com/dyes in food.HTML

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_ent.HTML?id=c373e9ffe3859dc28f6a17245d830100

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=179595