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Top 5 Ugly Truths 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

Why you should NEVER eat after 7pm

      Eating late at night is putting millions of people in danger of heart attacks and strokes, experts warn. A late-night meal keeps the body on ‘high alert’ when it should be winding down, researchers found. Heart experts last night advised that adults should never eat within two hours of bedtime – and ideally nothing after 7pm. In a healthy person, blood pressure drops by at least 10 per cent when they go to sleep .But the results of a study of more than 700 people with high blood pressure found that eating within two hours of bedtime meant their levels stayed high. Experts think this is because eating releases a rush of stress hormones when the body should be starting to relax. People who do not see their blood pressure fall at night are known as ‘non-dippers’ – and have a much higher rate of heart-related death. Late eaters were nearly three times more likely to be non-dippers, the Turkish researchers found. Researcher Dr Ebru Özpelit, presenting her results at the speaking at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Rome, said: ‘If we eat late at night, the body essentially remains on high alert as during the day, rather than relaxing for sleep.

     Stress hormones are secreted, causing blood pressure not to decrease during sleep, which should normally happen. ‘Dr Özpelit, from Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey, tracked 721 on people diagnosed with high blood pressure, with an average age of 53. She found that those who ate within two hours of going to bed were 2.8 times more likely to retain high blood pressure overnight. Some 9.4 million people in the UK are diagnosed with high blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension.They are already at a higher risk of heart disease, but if their blood pressure does not fall at night, that risk increases to a far higher level. Experts estimate that 40 per cent of patients with hypertension are non-dippers – potentially 3.76million people in Britain – putting them at serious risk of major heart problems. Dr Özpelit said: ‘It is more dangerous. If blood pressure doesn’t drop by more than 10 per cent this increases cardiovascular risk and these patients have more heart attacks, strokes and chronic disease.’

       But even healthy people with normal blood pressure should take note of the findings, Dr Özpelit said. ‘How we eat may be as important as what we eat,’ she said. She advised that people do not skip breakfast, eat lunch, and keep dinner to a small meal. ‘Eating breakfast and lunch is important but dinner must not be later than seven o’clock in the evening,’ she said. The findings add to a growing body of evidence which suggests keeping all meals to within a fixed period of time – and fasting at night – can have a wide range of health benefits. Previous research has found that an early dinner reduces the risk of breast cancer, lowers blood sugar levels, and helps burn off calories. Experts think part of the reason is that the body evolved to expect meals much earlier in the day – because people went to sleep when it got dark. Dr Özpelit said the invention of electricity changed that – introducing ‘erratic’ eating patterns.  With the advent of affordable artificial lighting and industrialization, modern humans began to experience prolonged hours of illumination every day and resultant extended consumption of food,’ she said.

        Late night eating and skipping breakfast is such an erratic eating pattern which is becoming more prevalent day by day. Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘This research suggests that eating a meal late at night may contribute to the failure of their blood pressure to reduce. ‘It is normal for blood pressure to reduce overnight, even in people with high blood pressure. ‘However, in some their blood pressure remains elevated throughout the night putting them at potentially higher risk of future complications.

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