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SURPRISE! French Study Confirms Ultra-processed Foods Increase Risk Of Early Death

February 12, 2019

SURPRISE! French Study Confirms Ultra-processed Foods Increase Risk Of Early Death

In a not so surprising announcement, a French team has discovered during a study that ultra-processed foods accelerate your risk of mortality.  According to the new research, humans face a 14% higher risk of early death with each 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods we eat.

Eating more and more processed foods, which is standard in the United States, could be a trend that causes early death from chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease and cancer. But it isn’t just the U.S.  Several nations suffer from succumbing to the highly addictive processed foods that can be detrimental to overall health and well-being. According to a recent study as reported by CNN, in the United States, 61% of an adult’s total diet comes from ultra-processed foods. In Canada, that number is 62%, and in the United Kingdom, that proportion is 63%. Much research has also indicated that eating ultra-processed foods can lead to obesity, high blood pressure, and cancers, and the study authors confirm this.

“Ultraprocessed foods are manufactured industrially from multiple ingredients that usually include additives used for technological and/or cosmetic purposes,” wrote the authors of the study, published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine“Ultraprocessed foods are mostly consumed in the form of snacks, desserts, or ready-to-eat or -heat meals,” and their consumption “has largely increased during the past several decades.”

To understand the relationship between ultra-processed foods and the risk of an earlier-than-expected death, the researchers enlisted the help of 44,551 French adults 45 and older for two years. Their average age was 57, and nearly 73% of the participants were women. All provided 24-hour dietary records every six months in addition to completing questionnaires about their health (including body-mass index and other measurements), physical activities and sociodemographics. –CNN

 …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Our food system – a health hazard

November 11, 2017

Our food system – a health hazard

People get sick because they work under unhealthy conditions.
People get sick because of contaminants in the water, soil, or air.
People get sick because specific foods they eat are unsafe for consumption.
People get sick because they have unhealthy diets.
People get sick because they can’t access adequate, acceptable food at all times.

A recent report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems identifies these five mechanisms whereby the current food system makes people sick.

The report calls for a reform of the food and farming systems to be made on the grounds of protecting human health.  Many of the most severe health are caused by core industrial food and farming practices, such as chemical-intensive agriculture; intensive livestock production and the mass production and mass marketing of ultra-processed foods. They are in turn stimulated by the deregulated global trade.

Because of all interconnections in the complex food system it is not possible to always ascertain exactly the causes of a particular problem, but we know enough to act, according to the report. Even if the industrial food and farming model is not the only cause of the problems, it has clearly failed to provide solutions to them. The health effects are strongly linked to environmental effects and social issues.

It is all too convenient for the industrial food system to place the responsibility of dietary choices with the consumers, when in reality they are the choice architects and they constantly influence consumers to consume highly processed foods made from a limited range of industrial raw materials. In addition they influence both research and policy for their own benefits.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

When You Grow Your Food–You Know Your Food

December 7, 2015

WHEN YOU GROW YOUR FOOD—YOU KNOW YOUR FOOD

When did food get so complicated? Not complicated to prepare, of course; it seems like companies delight in creating ever-more-convenient foods for us to enjoy, right out of the package or after a short trip through the microwave. But at what cost does that convenience come? The more simplified the methods of preparation and consumption are, it seems, the more complex our ingredient labels have become. And many of us are starting to question whether or not that’s a price worth paying.

That’s why more people are growing their own food.

PROCESSED FOODS & THEIR INGREDIENTS—MYSTERY AFTER MYSTERY

You’ve probably seen a few lists of the “grossest” ingredients in processed foods. Maybe you’ve heard about carmine, a red dye created from crushed beetles, or cellulose, which is essentially very, very fine sawdust. Both are quite common in various processed and prepared foods. But these two ingredients, at least, are relatively recognizable and have been used extensively for a long time.

We’re less concerned about the ick factor than we are the simple fact that it can be difficult to know what you’re eating—and that can let more than an icky ingredient or two slip by you. For example, are you familiar with butylated hydroxytoluene? Probably not. But not only is this additive used in jet fuel, rubber, and embalming fluids, it’s also used in foods—as a preservative.

So what? Well, if you do a bit of research on this one very common ingredient, you’ll find that there’s a fair bit of controversy surrounding it. It can be “reasonably anticipated” to be a cancer-causing agent in human beings, according to the National Toxicology Program. Its MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) cites its potential to cause liver damage.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Growing Doubt: a Scientist’s Experience of GMOs

September 1, 2015

Growing Doubt: a Scientist’s Experience of GMOs

By training, I am a plant biologist. In the early 1990s I was busy making genetically modified plants (often called GMOs for Genetically Modified Organisms) as part of the research that led to my PhD. Into these plants we were putting DNA from various foreign organisms, such as viruses and bacteria.

I was not, at the outset, concerned about the possible effects of GM plants on human health or the environment. One reason for this lack of concern was that I was still a very young scientist, feeling my way in the complex world of biology and of scientific research. Another reason was that we hardly imagined that GMOs like ours would be grown or eaten. So far as I was concerned, all GMOs were for research purposes only.

Gradually, however, it became clear that certain companies thought differently. Some of my older colleagues shared their skepticism with me that commercial interests were running far ahead of scientific knowledge. I listened carefully and I didn’t disagree. Today, over twenty years later, GMO crops, especially soybeans, corn, papaya, canola and cotton, are commercially grown in numerous parts of the world.

Depending on which country you live in, GMOs may be unlabeled and therefore unknowingly abundant in your diet. Processed foods (e.g. chips, breakfast cereals, sodas) are likely to contain ingredients from GMO crops, because they are often made from corn or soy. Most agricultural crops, however, are still non-GMO, including rice, wheat, barley, oats, tomatoes, grapes and beans.

For meat eaters the nature of GMO consumption is different. There are no GMO animals used in farming (although GM salmon has been pending FDA approval since 1993); however, animal feed, especially in factory farms or for fish farming, is likely to be GMO corn and GMO soybeans. In which case the labeling issue, and potential for impacts on your health, are complicated.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Warren Buffett is Everything That’s Wrong With America

April 3, 2015

Warren Buffett is Everything That’s Wrong With America

I think I’ve never understood the American – and international – fascination with money, with gathering wealth as the no. 1 priority in one’s life. What looks even stranger to me is the idolization of people who have a lot of money. Like these people are per definition smarter or better than others. It seems obvious that most of them are probably just more ruthless, that they have less scruples, and that their conscience is less likely to get in the way of their money and power goals.

America may idolize no-one more than Warren Buffett, the man who has propelled his fund, Berkshire Hathaway, into riches once deemed unimaginable. For most people, Buffett symbolizes what is great about American society and its economic system. For me, he’s the symbol of everything that’s going wrong.

Last week, Buffett announced a plan to merge a number of ‘food’ companies in a deal he set up with Brazilian 3G Capital. For some reason, they all have German names (I’m not sure why that is or what it means, if anything): Heinz, Kraft, Oscar Mayer. Reuters last week summed up a few of the ‘foods’ involved:

 

His move on Wednesday to inject Velveeta cheese, Jell-O, Lunchables, Oscar Mayer wieners, and Kool-Aid into his portfolio, stuffs an already amply supplied larder. The additions came from the acquisition of Kraft Foods Group Inc by H.J. Heinz Co, which is controlled by 3G Capital and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. His larder already included everything from Burger King’s Triple Whopper burgers, Coca-Cola soft drinks and Tim Horton donuts to See’s Candies and Dairy Queen icecream Blizzards, as well as such Heinz brands as Tomato Ketchup, Ore-Ida fries, bagel bites and T.G.I. Friday’s mozzarella sticks.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

I’ve been Pollan-ated… | Eric Garza

November 4, 2014

I’ve been Pollan-ated… | Eric Garza.

Each year the University of Vermont chooses a book that all first year undergraduates are expected to read. This year they chose Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, by Michael Pollan, a book I reviewed a while back. If Michael Pollan is anything, he’s certainly an excellent storyteller. As part of the curricula associated with Cooked, several groups teamed up to bring Michael Pollan to campus for a question and answer session and book signing this past Thursday evening, and I was lucky enough to attend the event. 

The questions asked of Pollan were grouped broadly in three categories, the first of which centered around the author’s process of writingCooked.  The second group centered around a central theme of Pollan’s writing, humanity’s relationship with nature. Although I’ve read a few of Pollan’s books I hadn’t caught this as a central theme, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense. Food remains, for many people, their last remaining connection to that abstract, distant thing called ‘nature’. Eating represents the process by which we take nature, which is ‘out there’, and turn it into us. The precise methods with which we do this define us, as individuals and as a species.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Boosting Your Immune System: What NOT to Eat |

October 29, 2014

Boosting Your Immune System: What NOT to Eat |.

Tis the season for the flu shot propaganda machine to rev into high gear, as Big Pharma, the CDC, and the mainstream media urge people to roll up their sleeves and have toxins like mercury and formaldehyde injected into them, all in the name of “staying healthy this winter.”

There’s a much easier way to stay healthy that also involves toxins – the ones in our food supply. Only I recommend avoiding them instead of injecting them directly into your body.

If you consume processed foods on a regular basis, you’re forcing your immune system to work to protect you against the things you are ingesting, instead of fighting off viruses and germs.

Many people thoughtlessly poison themselves every single day. They have some white sugar and fluoride in the morning coffee. They have some MSG-laden, highly salted saturated fat at lunch and wash it down with a neurotoxic, artificially sweetened drink. Dinner gets picked up at a convenient drive-thru window, and it’s enriched with more MSG and some GMO high fructose corn syrup. Don’t even get me started on that late night snack in front of the TV. Most of what typical Americans eat can hardly even be considered actual food.

– See more at: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/boosting-your-immune-system-what-not-to-eat-10282014#sthash.dC8hikV5.dpuf

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