What’s Hidden in the Meat We Eat?

Physical stress is easy to identify when you look at hard labor or strenuous exercise. However, there is another type of physical stress that compromises nutrients brought upon the body because of diet.

Antibiotics, Growth Hormones and Steroids. Oh My!

We all know that animals destined for food production are given antibiotics, growth hormones and steroids. These substances end up in the meat we eat. My neighbor had cows on his property and told me “at six months old they weighed around  five to six hundred pounds. At that age, I send them to my brother-in-law who owns a feed lot. At the end of six months, I sell them to food manufactures. At that time, they weigh around a thousand pounds.”

What this said to me is that the cows are jacked up on steroids to the point that they gain a hundred pounds a month — you know those chemicals are in the fat, meat and dairy that we end up consuming. This stresses your detoxification and immune system in their efforts to keep you healthy. Scientists know that there is an inherent danger in this. What they do not know is the long-term effects on us.  

Preservatives

We have all types of preservatives  and colorants in our meats. After all, who would buy a grey piece of meat? That is its true color if you took away Sodium Nitrate. It is used to both preserve meats and also to keep the red color. Sodium Nitrate is used in labs to induce cancer in animals so we can do research on the disease. The USDA tried to ban the chemical in the 1970s, but was unsuccessful due to lobbyists. The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) concluded that no amount of processed meat is safe, so they recommend avoiding it all.  Source: Rohrmann S, et al. BMC Medicine 2013, 11:63.

Corn Syrup

Corn syrup solids and high fructose corn syrup are common ingredients in flavoring our foods. Some processed meats contain this poison as well. Read labels and stop believing everything they tell you. It’s all about the money, not health. Maybe another cause of diabetes is all of this syrup in the food chain. Eliminate it from your diet if you really want to be healthy.

Pesticides

My favorite! The FDA that regulates the safety of our food supply is A-OK with allowing the use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in our foods. After all, they are great for extending shelf life and keeping the food “safe” from infection. And yet we still get sick from food borne critters. What’s more, animals (chicken, pork, cows, etc.) raised for the meat market using traditional methods are generally provided a feed that is grown with the help of pesticides.

There is an organization called the Pesticide Action Network North America. One of their reports states that Americans can experience up to 70 daily exposures to residues of a class of toxic chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These chemicals can include DDT and dioxin. What’s interesting is that we banned DDT and then sold it to foreign countries that use it in growing their food. Guess what? They are now shipping that food back to us!

The organization put out a report called, “Nowhere to Hide: Persistent Toxic Chemicals in the U.S. Food Supply.” This report analyzes chemical residue data collected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and finds persistent chemical contaminants in ALL food groups.

So, what’s in the food you are eating?