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Is It Possible To Avoid Genetically Modified Food?

Genetically modified food has divided experts for years. Some say that it is necessary to feed a growing global population whilst others object to GM food on the grounds that it is unethical and poses health risks for both humans and for the natural environment.

Although many consumers are wary about eating GM products, food producers have continued to seek new ways to increase profits and reduce wastage. As a result many everyday products now contain GM ingredients. And GM food may be more prevalent than you expect. In fact, around 90% of the corn grown in the US is genetically modified.

So what exactly does Genetically Modified mean?
Genetically modified foods are produced by making changes to the DNA structure of food crops to give specific benefits. Examples include apples that have been modified not to brown as quickly or potato crops that have been modified to be more resistant to viruses.

How to avoid GM ingredients
It can be difficult to spot which products have been genetically modified, particularly as a large amount of animal feed contains GM ingredients. Even though the eggs you eat might not have been modified themselves, the chicken that laid them may be eating genetically modified feed.

If you want to avoid GM ingredients, the best thing to do is look for labels that state that a product is ‘GM Free’. Alternatively, choose organic products that feature the Soil Association logo.

The Soil Association campaigns against the use of GM ingredients in both human food and animal feed. For more information about the Soil Association, visit: www.soilassociation.org

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Top 5 Ugly Truths the Meat Industry Hopes You Never Find Out

What we put in our bodies in the way of food makes a difference in every single level of our lives. It affects how we feel, how we look, how we reproduce, and even how we think. These things will then make a difference in how we relate to each other as a society, which then translates into how we will relate as a society to the entire world. Food is just as relevant and important to us and our survival as air and water.When we started changing where our food source came from is when the trouble seems to have started. We stopped getting our food from people (neighborhood farmers, friends, our own backyard gardens) and started getting it from corporations.  This was a huge mistake and it shows in every aspect of our lives.

Unfortunately, many of us live so far removed from farms and dairy production that we have little or no idea what is going on, what is in our food, or how the animals we are eating are being treated. You would never consider eating meat from a cow that was obviously sick when it was alive, but since you aren’t there when this cow is slaughtered; you could very well be eating meat from sick animals. We are what we eat, friends, so in this case, the sickness the animal had while it was alive can be transferred to you when you eat it.

This isn’t to say that we all need to be standing by, personally approving every animal that is killed before we eat it. That is completely unrealistic. But everyone should be aware of the facts behind factory farmed meats and why you should NOT be consuming those.

Take a look at the top 5 facts behind factory farmed animals and why the meat industry hopes you never find out.

1. Factory farmed means extreme density problems

Thirty eight states in the US admit to having extreme density levels at least at some their factory farms. California is perhaps the worst offender with more than 25 percent of their counties saying that they have extreme density levels. What does this mean exactly?

Corporate run farms edge out the average family farm by undercutting meat prices so that they cannot survive and end up selling their farms to these corporations. Corporate farms are able to make their money in numbers, raising huge amounts of animals in crowded, inhumane conditions and increasing the speed at which animals grow through growth hormone injections.

Pigs and chickens are often kept in completely enclosed buildings where these animals never see the sun. EVER.

Factory farms avoid disease by constantly injecting their animals with antibiotics or putting antibiotics in the feed. They need to do this because the animals themselves are kept in unbelievably crowded, unclean conditions. Animals are packed in so tightly that sometimes they cannot turn around. If they want to lie down, they must do so in their own waste.

Even with these antibiotics, which are being passed on to you via the meat, by the way,  think of how many salmonella and E.coli outbreaks there have been in the past 20 years.

The waste from these animals, which is often sold as fertilizer, puts all those growth hormones and antibiotics into the soil, which leeches into our food and water supply.

 

2.  Ammonia Reigns

If you have ever gotten a whiff of strong ammonia, you most likely pulled back quickly. Ammonia is a powerful chemical that is used to clean things such as windows and toilets.

Ammonia is used in processing plants as it sterilizes the meat and kills some pathogens, but apparently not salmonella and E.coli as these are still problems in the meat supply in America.

Ammonia actually changes the DNA cell structure and warps cells, which can fuel the development of cancer, especially in organs that try to remove ammonia from the body, such as your liver and pancreas.

Although you won’t see ammonia on the list of ingredients, but if you have ever seen the words “processing agents” on a package of hamburger, then you know they used ammonia to clean it.

 

3.  Hormone Heaven

In addition to the antibiotics that must be given due to overcrowded conditions, hormones are given to many animals, such as pigs and cows, to help make them grow bigger and gain weight faster so they can be butchered more quickly.

Unfortunately, those hormones don’t know if they are fattening up a cow or YOU.

In America, two out of every three cows are given hormones because it will make the corporation more money. That’s it. They don’t care if these hormones cause you problems such as prostate cancer or breast cancer. They don’t care if these hormones make you gain weight; they only care about making more money

Hormones such as zeranol, verall, and progesterone, interrupt the human body’s natural hormone balance. Fewer women in Europe have breast cancer because the European Union has banned these types of hormones in their meat. Read more about foods Americans eat that are banned in other countries.

4. Antibiotics and You

Ever wonder why so many people and bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics?

Part of the reason is because animals in the US are being fed huge overdoses of antibiotics and these stay in the meat, which you consume.

 

5.  Bleaching Your Meat

It’s well known that the meat industry also uses bleach rinses in order to clean meat. Now you might be asking, if they use bleach, why isn’t the meat white?

This is because the corporate meat industry uses nitrates to give meat that fresh, red color.

Everyone knows that the healthy flesh of recently killed meat is a flush of red. However, since many meats, especially processed meats such as bacon and hot dogs, were killed quite a while back, and then processed with bleach, they need to be made to look “fresh” again. Companies use nitrates and nitrites to make meat look red and fresh, and also to preserve its shelf life. If only nitrates could preserve us! Instead, nitrates are carcinogens that kill.

No one is suggesting that you need to give up meat entirely. Meat can be healthy for you when it is kept and killed correctly. Make a commitment today to only buy organic, grass fed meats. Cattle and chickens that walk freely about outside in the sun (which why you will sometimes see meat labels that say “Free Range”) and eat normal animal diets, such as seeds, grass, and insects, have healthy levels of many important vitamins and minerals. No one can say that about factory farmed meats.  Eat smart and always eat organic. It’s well worth the price.

SOURCE..www.naturalon.com

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Scientific Proof Organic Foods Are More Nutritious !!!

Must everyone who has ever selected their fruits and vegetables from the “organic” section while grocery shopping probably thought they were doing something good for their bodies and the environment. Yet the question of whether organic foods are in fact more nutritious than their conventionally grown counterparts remains a topic of heated scientific debate.

On Monday, the British Journal of Nutrition published research that disputed the notion that organic foods are essentially no more healthful than conventional foods. After reviewing 343 studies on the topic, researchers in Europe and the United States concluded that organic crops and organic-crop-based foods contained higher concentrations of antioxidants on average than conventionally grown foods. At the same time, the researchers found that conventional foods contained greater concentrations of residual pesticides and the toxic metal cadmium. “This shows clearly that organically grown fruits, vegetables and grains deliver tangible nutrition and food safety benefits,” said study coauthor Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s  Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources.

However, the study’s findings came with some caveats. “The first and foremost message is people need to eat more fruits and vegetables,” Benbrook said. “Buying organic is the surest way of limiting exposure if you have health issues, but by all means, people need to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables whether it’s organic or conventional.”To carry an organic label in the U.S., foods must be grown without synthetic pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, genetic engineering or chemical fertilizers.Scientists have hypothesized that organic plants produce more antioxidants and natural toxins to defend themselves against insects and other environmental threats.It’s not entirely clear to scientists whether the human body can absorb the extra antioxidants in organic foods and put them to use.Although Benbrook and his colleagues said they suspected the antioxidants could be used by the body to combat damaging free radicals, they could not say so conclusively.

“It is important to point out that there is still a lack of knowledge about the potential human health impacts of increasing antioxidant/polyphenolic intake levels and switching to organic food consumption,” the study authors wrote.Despite prohibitions on using synthetic pesticides, up to 25% of organic crops contain pesticide residues because of contamination during packaging or from trace amounts in drifting soils or tainted irrigation water, some researchers have said.When comparing organic and conventional crops, Benbrook and his colleagues found that conventionally grown fruits and vegetables were four times more likely to contain pesticide residues. That finding was based on 11 of the examined studies and did not evaluate the quantity of pesticides, Benbrook said.

Defenders of conventionally grown crops argue that any pesticide residues found are too small to pose a health risk.”Our typical exposures are at least 10,000 times lower than doses we can give to laboratory animals every day throughout their lifetimes and not cause any effects,” said Carl Winter, a pesticide and food toxin expert at UC Davis, who was not involved in the study. “If your concerns about pesticide residues are leading you to reduce your consumption of fruits and vegetables, then I think you’re doing yourself more harm than good.”

The findings about antioxidants and pesticide residues were not as surprising as the finding that organic foods were 48% less likely to contain cadmium.Study authors said it remained unclear why, and what the specific health consequences could be. More research was necessary, they wrote. Cadmium, which also is present in cigarette smoke, can cause damage to the liver and kidneys at certain levels.For that reason, the study authors said, people should try to minimize their cadmium intake. However, they wrote, “the exact health benefits associated with reducing cadmium intake levels via a switch to organic food consumption are difficult to estimate.”

 

SOURCE…www.latimes.com