Are Natural Foods Natural?

Most US packaged foods labeled ‘natural’ have GM ingredients – report

Non-profit finds that while ‘organic’ products lack GM ingredients, many cereals, chips and infant formula contain them

Three tomatoes grown from genetically modified seeds. Photograph: Alamy

A majority of US packaged foods labeled as “natural” and tested by Consumer Reports actually contained a substantial level of genetically modified ingredients, according to a report issued Tuesday by the non-profit product testing group.

Consumers are being misled by the “natural” label, said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability.

Consumer Reports said it had conducted a survey of more than 80 different processed foods containing corn or soy, the two most widely grown genetically engineered crops in the United States, to determine whether labeling claims for GMO presence were accurate.

While foods labeled as “non-GMO”, or “organic” were found to be free of genetically modified corn and soy, virtually all of the foods labeled as “natural” or not labeled with any claim related to GMO content contained substantial amounts of GMO ingredients, Consumer Reports said.

GMOs were present in breakfast cereals, chips and infant formula, the group said.

Source: TheGuardian Read more

A Shock to the System

I am a beer drinker. No secret.

I have always considered my humble pastime to be relatively free from interference; the same interference that has befallen softdrinks/sodas.

But alas, not. The brewing industry has become tainted with the same bullshit.

8 Beers That You Should Stop Drinking Immediately!!!

Many of us choose what we eat very carefully, or at least dedicate our minimum attention to it. But when it comes to drinks, especially alcoholic beverages, we do little to make the best decisions for our health. Which is a HUGE mistake. All the work for your body can be ruined in a weekend out. While foods and non alcoholic beverages are required to list their ingredients and are monitored by the FDA, beer does not belong in either. Alcohol industry had lobbied for years to avoid labeling its ingredients. Some to protect its recipes, but most – to hide harmful ingredients.

Here’s some harmful ingredients that are commonly found in beer:

• GMO Corn Syrup
• GMO Corn
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Fish Bladder
• Propylene Glycol
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
• Natural Flavors
• GMO Sugars
• Caramel Coloring
• Insect-Based Dyes
• Carrageenan
• BPA
• & lots more!

Here are the 8 beers that are commonly found in bars in United States that you should stop drinking immediately.

1. Newcastle Brown Ale

The Newcastle beer has been found to contain caramel coloring. Class 3 and 4 caramel coloring is made from ammonia, which is classified as a carcinogen. “The one and only” beer with cancer causing qualities.

2. Budweiser

One of the most popular beers, or most advertised is Budweiser. Budweiser contains genetically modified (GMO) corn. In 2007, Greenpeace discovered experimental GMO rice in Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) beer.

3. Corona Extra

I used to love Corona’s commercials. They were so peaceful and relaxing. That is until I found out that the beer contains GMO Corn Syrup and Propylene Glycol. Propylene Glycol is controversial, and is said to may be potentially harmful to your health.

4. Miller Lite…

Source: Be like Water read about the other tainted beers, see what beers are GMO free and which are organic.

Opinion:

Now that they have stuffed up beer, it is proof that NOTHING is sacred anymore.

I always considered that beer was sacrosanct, sadly it appears not.

Rather ironic, just Tuesday, a service rep from the largest brewing corporation in South America was decrying that certain beers now contain corn; none of his companies beers was among them. This company produces/distributes Budweiser…

The ad for Budweiser – “Good times are coming!” Oh, yes, they certainly are, if you are a zombie; and if you’re not, then you soon will be.

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Make you Fink on Friday

Monday Moaning

Do we want these?

They’ve been developed, they’re being shipped to England.

Are they safe?

They won’t enter my house.

For me a tomato is RED, any other colour is NOT a tomato!

These are tomatoes

Genetically-modified purple tomatoes heading for shops

The new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everyday foods

The prospect of genetically modified purple tomatoes reaching the shelves has come a step closer.

Their dark pigment is intended to give tomatoes the same potential health benefits as fruit such as blueberries.

Developed in Britain, large-scale production is now under way in Canada with the first 1,200 litres of purple tomato juice ready for shipping.

The pigment, known as anthocyanin, is an antioxidant which studies on animals show could help fight cancer.

Scientists say the new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everything from ketchup to pizza topping.

The tomatoes were developed at the John Innes Centre in Norwich where Prof Cathie Martin hopes the first delivery of large quantities of juice will allow researchers to investigate its potential.

“With these purple tomatoes you can get the same compounds that are present in blueberries and cranberries that give them their health benefits – but you can apply them to foods that people actually eat in significant amounts and are reasonably affordable,” she said.

The tomatoes are part of a new generation of GM plants designed to appeal to consumers – the first types were aimed specifically at farmers as new tools in agriculture.

The purple pigment is the result of the transfer of a gene from a snapdragon plant – the modification triggers a process within the tomato plant allowing the anthocyanin to develop.

Although the invention is British, Prof Martin says European Union restrictions on GM encouraged her to look abroad to develop the technology.

Read more

 

 

Monday Moaning

“I-522 would have required that non-exempt foods and agricultural products offered for retail sale state “clearly and conspicuously” on the front of the package if they were genetically-engineered, contain or might have contained genetically-engineered ingredients.” – Wikipedia

Pepsi, Coke, Nestle top multi-million-dollar campaign against I-522

Pepsico, Coca-Cola and NestleUSA have each put up more than $1 million to defeat Washington’s Initiative 522, money  the food industry giants channeled through a “Defense of Brands Strategic Account,” set up by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) so companies would leave no footprints.

The initiative, which has drawn the ire of the food industry and agribusiness, would require the labeling of genetically modified food products, seeds and seed stocks sold on the shelves of Washington stores.

In yielding to a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, GMA agreed to list donors to what has become a $17.1 million campaign to defeat I-522.

The list is a who’s-who of America’s powerful food and agribusiness firms.  It was posted late Friday on the balky website of the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Coca-Cola and Pepsico have been here before.  The American Beverage Association, in 2010, spent $16.9 million on a TV blitz that rolled back a small soda pop-junk food tax enacted by the Washington Legislature in an effort to ease cuts in money to the state’s schools and colleges.

The “No on 522″ donations include: (read the full article for a comprehensive list of donors)

Source: SeattlePI read more.

Opinion:

These companies are fighting for their survival; in other words for their ability to make huge profits.

They know that if GMOs are a required part of labeling, they’ll lose a substantial part of their market because the public are daily becoming more discerning and more concerned with GMOs and their effect on our health.

We are at war, company profits vs the right to choose.

Personally, I have stopped knowingly buying any product that I even suspect contains GMOs, That includes Coca Cola or any soda, but not limited to.

The whole food industry is a minefield of horrors at our expense.

We deserve the right to know the path through this minefield, we deserve the right to protect ourselves from corporate greed.

The amount of money these corporations and companies have spent to defeat this labeling proposal is obscene, and shows how frightened they are of losing their precious profits. It also shows how blatantly ignorant they are of our health.

They don’t care!

Monday Moaning

This is my 100th Monday Moaning…

Nobody does Nuthin’!

There is so much crap out there and it appears as though nobody is doing anything because things are just getting worse.

It doesn’t matter whether it is the climate, global warming, CO2 emissions, pollution, GMOs, industrial and agricultural poisons, BPA, just to name a few.

We have become complacent.

Isn’t life worth fighting for? Have we all rolled over and are playing dead?

Daily, I read the news, the more I read, the more despondent I become. I am at the tail end of life, soon it won’t matter for me, but I am leaving children and grandchildren who are going to pay for our collective apathy.

The people who generally read this blog are not included in the apathetic, they try in big and small ways. But the people who should be in control are the apathetic ones, the politicians, the governments, the media, the organisations who are there to protect us, and they are not.

When are we the people going to take our power back?

Because if we don’t, there’s going to be a lot more suffering in the future, your children, your grandchildren.

</rant>.

Satireday on Eco-Crap

Must be GMOs…

 

Monday Moaning

Whoops… It’s Tuesday already.

Where’d Monday go?

What happened to Monday?

I have a feeling it’s going to be one of those weeks.

Still, we can have a Tuesday Moaning over coffee.

Food

We need it, the world is short of it. Companies and corporations are trying to get rich from it, and they don’t care if it’s healthy or not, just as long as the money rolls in.

They experiment with it; GMOs and the like, they try and control or dominate the market and nobody bleats or raises an eyebrow.

Nearly all the grain in the world is already compromised. I read yesterday of a farmer whose crop was banned because it was contaminated with GMOs, he was exporting to a country that, wisely, doesn’t accept them.

We read about the rush for biofuels creating shortages of the same plants that were once a food crop.

They want to GMOise or farm salmon, then shit happens…

This goes against nature. Nature has it’s protections in place and along comes man and tries to change it.

It won’t be too far in the future when all we can get is GMOised products. The thing that concerns me is that we don’t yet know what GMOs do to us and government organisations are being bought and sold on the idea that this is necessary in order to overcome the global shortages.

The companies and corporations bulldoze ahead, regardless; as long as there is a profit rainbow ahead. The governments don’t say boo, they don’t want to lose their funding from these bastards; they don’t care about you, their bottom line is money.

We, the people, need to stand up to this crap. Hurt these companies where it hurts most, the pocket.

We need to demand GMO labeling, so that we can make informed choices when we buy.

We need to educate the populace, who are kept in the dark through lack of information, or biased advertising.

We, the people have become sheep, we ‘just follow’ the flock, it doesn’t matter if we are pandering to the corporate wolves.

It has to stop!

And only you can stop it.

 

Monday Moaning

Why Do Governments Recommend This Toxic Food Today When They Didn’t A Decade Ago?

If we analyze the food guide and government advice on nutrition over a decade ago and compare those advisements to what is recommended today, there is one big difference–one specific food crept up onto the radar of public health officials as if it had some kind of miraculous nutritional benefit for the public. The problem is, 80 percent of this food is genetically modified, contains toxic phytochemicals and is linked to digestive distress, immune system breakdown, allergies, ADD and ADHD, higher risk of heart disease and cancer, malnutrition, and loss of libido. Yet, governments seem to think that’s not a problem. (emphasis mine)

You’ve probably already figured out that the food is soy.

I’ll get to how deadly soy is shortly, but first let’s backtrack to the year 2000 and analyze the food guides of two countries, namely Canada and The United States.

The waybackmachine is a beautiful tool that can show us exactly what a website looked like in the past. So if we plug in both the USDA and Health Canada websites in the year 2000 at about the same period, we can see exactly how each publicly funded message translated to each respective food guide or pyramid.

In the Year 2000
On the Health Canada website, there was absolutely no mention of soy at all. Under milk products, the main message was to choose lower-fat milk products more often. Most people had no idea back then how toxic pasteurized milk was, so it was heavily consumed, much more than it is today. There are currently huge debates throughout the internet as to why humans are drinking milk at all.

On the USDA website on either the Milk, Yogurt & Cheese page or the main page illustrating the Food Guide Pyramid, there is again no mention of soy. The recommendation was also low dairy.

So what happened?

In the Year 2013
Today, Health Canada promotes fortified soy beverages on their website for those who don’t drink milk. So we go out of the frying pan and into the fire. We go from the recommendation of a dead liquid, namely pasteurized milk to a beverage that may be even more harmful to public health.

“Have milk or fortified soy beverages by the glass or use them in recipes.”

“Use milk or fortified soy beverages when preparing scrambled eggs, hot cereal, casseroles and soups.”

“Create smoothies by blending lower fat milk or fortified soy beverage with a combination of fresh or frozen fruits.”

“Try a latte made with low fat milk or fortified soy beverage.”

“Use milk or fortified soy beverages to replace some or all of the water when reconstituting canned tomato or cream soups.”

The USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), kicked their message into high gear in 2002 when they started heavily promoting soy across the United States. Their key message is still to switch to fat-free or low-fat milk, however consume calcium-fortified soy milk is a main heading.

“For those who are lactose intolerant… include lactose-reduced or lactose-free milk, yogurt, and cheese, and calcium-fortified soymilk (soy beverage).”

Under Tips For Vegetarians

“Sources of protein for vegetarians and vegans include beans, nuts, nut butters, peas, and soy products (tofu, tempeh, veggie burgers).”

“Sources of calcium for vegetarians and vegans include calcium-fortified soymilk“

“Calcium-fortified soymilk provides calcium in amounts similar to milk. It is usually low in fat and does not contain cholesterol.”

“For breakfast, try soy-based sausage patties or links.”

“try veggie burgers, soy hot dogs, marinated tofu or tempeh, and veggie kabobs.”

The site is littered with soy recommendations not only for vegetarians, but also in the promotion of protein foods.

How did this happen? When soy industry lobbyists get together and decide to change the framework of nutrition for the masses, it happens. It’s really that simple.

It’s not only soy. If you care to investigate further, you’ll also notice how three of the most toxic genetically modified oils in the world, canola, corn and soyabean oil are heavily promoted today on both the Health Canada website and the CNPP website (on behalf of the USDA), and neither agency had those recommendations in 2000.

The USDA had absolutely no mention of any of these oils in 2000.

Health Canada also has no mention of these oils in 2000.

How Deadly is Soy?

Source: Prevent Disease Read more, you’ll be shocked!

Opinion:

I’m not even going to bother with an opinion here, you’ll form your own after reading this and the link, your opinion will be the same as mine.