On a lighter note than the possibility of unknowingly ingesting what's essentially thalidomide, I'd like to talk about colors in our food and drinks. The subject first appeared on my radar years ago, when I picked up a bottle of red grapefruit juice on a day when I just really wanted grapefruit juice.
There on the label was something called cochineal extract. Hmmm, I thought. Extract? Sounds, I don't know, like it comes from fruit. Or some kind of berry, or maybe a pod. And I didn't give it a second thought because, heck, extracts are so, well, natural.
Indeed, cochineal extract is indeed natural. And it's approved by the FDA for use in food, drinks and cosmetics, Problem is, it doesn't come from fruit, or berries, or pods. It comes from insects. Specifically, it comes from the female cochineal insect, which lives on prickly pear cactus plants native to Central and South America.
And how do they get the red, pink and fuchsia from the little critters? They, uh, crush them. In huge numbers; after all, it takes lots of little insects to color our yogurt, candy, baked goods, alcoholic drinks, fake crab, even our lipstick and shampoo. If you're picturing huge cochineal-raising operations, with acres and acres of opuntia, the cactus in question--well, you're right.
The problems with cochineal extract, also called carmine, fall into two general categories. The first, which I'll refer to by its technical name, is the ick factor. It isn't potentially harmful, but still, you're eating or drinking or applying to your lips . . . bug juice. Yum! And for those of you who are either vegetarian or vegan, you may want to watch labels more closely. Same goes for Jews, Muslims, Jains, and so on.
The second, much worse, problem is that ingesting said bug juice (and even working in the industry which produces or uses it) can cause and has caused everything from cracked lips to severe, life-threatening anaphylactic shock, the kind that sends you to the emergency room with the possibility that you may not leave it alive.
Still, there's good news on the horizon. The substance (i.e., bug juice) will be subject to new labeling requirements in the United States starting in early January. See, all this time, the industry has been able to list it on labels as "color added." And we can safely assume that when the same industry is forced to list the bug juice as carmine or cochineal, instead of color added or natural red no. 4, some manufacturers may prefer to find alternate sources of reds and pinks.
However, the bad news is that the particular pink shade of carmine used in candies, dairy products, and baked goods is hard to match without using, you know, bug juice, so chances are good it'll still be in many products. After all, the new rules don't say they can't use the stuff, just that they now have to label it as (sort of) what it is. And, of course, the global food industry assumes consumers are--to put it gently--severely stupid cows (sorry, cows!) who don't bother to read labels anyway as they shove the stuff down their gullets (apologies for the mixed metaphors).
Because the stuff is indeed natural, the industry complains that we're up in arms over a natural product. And yes, the squeezins' from cactus-dwelling insects are natural, even though they might provoke life-threatening allergic reactions. And, you know, the ick factor.
So to the food and drink industry that uses the magic word, natural, to try to gain our trust, and to convince us that we all have our knickers in a twist because the product they use to color our world is natural, I have only three words:
So is arsenic.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
A New Way of Thinking About MSG
I’ve written in other places about MSG, and the related neurotoxin aspartame, and I’ll post links at the end of this article should you want to read those articles. However, what I’m about to post here for you may surprise even those who have done some reading on the subject before now.
I’m going to attempt to lay this out logically, and I appreciate the help of my friends at the Truth in Labeling Campaign, who have fought much longer than I to get the news out about this toxic, even deadly substance. Then I'll let you form your own conclusions about monosodium glutamate, otherwise known as MSG, glutamic acid, and glutamate.
MSG has, over the past decades, become such a common ingredient in most of what we eat and drink, not to mention what we feed to our pets and even inject into them and ourselves, that many of have become so accustomed to seeing the substance listed (under a host of misleading names) that we’ve perhaps become blase and accepting: It’s in our food, guess we have to accept it.
That may change for you as you continue reading.
Point #1: We need to change the way we think about MSG. For years, it seems, we have been thinking of MSG as an ingredient. Our favorite restaurant says they don’t add MSG, and we’re happy. But MSG is essentially two ingredients: salt and glutamic acid. It’s not the salt that’s the problem, it’s the glutamic acid.
Point #2: Glutamic acid is the result of processing proteins. Glutamic acid is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter; that is, it affects your brain, and in a big way. When we say we’re ‘allergic’ to MSG, or we have a ‘reaction’ to MSG, we’re referring to the glutamic acid and not to the salt.
Point #3: Glutamic acid has been used for decades to cause obesity (and aspartic acid to cause brain damage) in laboratory animals. Its effects have been observed to cause a host of physical problems as well, from shortness of breath to cardiac irregularities and even death.
Point #4: Hydrolyzed vegetable proteins contain glutamic acid and they are used in countless products as flavor enhancers, which is the primary purpose of MSG. For evidence, please read the following: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Hydrolyzed%20Vegetable%20Proteins_ForTheWeb_8-10-10.pdf.
Point #5: Despite our efforts, avoiding glutamic acid is difficult at best, impossible at worst. The substance hides under a number of names, and here's a list: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Ingredients_WithEnumbers_6.4.10.pdf
Point #6: There's more to MSG than even I knew.
To recap, MSG is toxic, it's in nearly everything we consume or drink, scientists have known for decades that it causes obesity and a wide, very wide, range of physical ailments (too many to list here), and a label proclaiming "No MSG added" is merely splitting hairs: The producer may not have added the ingredient known as MSG but it did add often copious amounts of glutamic acid in its various forms, including hydrolyzed proteins. The Devil, as always, is in the details.
Here is the one detail I didn't know until very recently. The drug known as Thalidomide, which caused such horrific birth defects in England, is still in use; in fact the National Institutes of Health, NIH, have posted a list of warnings about using the drug, which you can read here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001053
And Thalidomide is, according to the National Cancer Institute, also part of the NIH, a “synthetic derivative of glutamic acid (alpha-phthalimido-glutarimide) with teratogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic properties." Teratogenic means able to disturb the growth and development of a fetus. Immunomodulatory means altering the immune system. And when pregnant women take an antiangiogenic agent, the developing fetus will not form blood vessels properly, which halts the development of fetal limbs and circulatory systems. When women were given Thalidomide in the late '50s and early '60s, their babies were born with flippers instead of arms and legs.
However, Thalidomide was used for something else at that time in Europe: It was a sedative. Apocryphal evidence says it was known as the "babysitter," because it kept children quiet while their parents were otherwise occupied. From a British Medical Journal piece published in 1958, we see this on a readily available form of Thalidomide sold under the tradename Distaval:
"Distaval Tablets and Distaval Forte Tablets (Distillers
Co. (Biochemicals) Ltd.).--These tablets contain thalidomide,
or N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide. There is 25 mg.
in each distaval tablet and 100 mg. in each distaval forte
tablet. This substance was introduced in 1955 in Germany, where
it has been widely used as a daytime sedative (25-50 mg. two
to four times daily) and to induce sleep at night (50-100 mg.).
Its hypnotic action lasts for 4-6 hours, so that its effect
resembles that of the medium-acting barbiturates such as
butobarbitone. The early clinical reports indicated that it
was virtually free from harmful side-effects, and no toxic
symptoms could be produced in animals by the highest doses
which solubility permitted. Recently, however, it has been
shown to have a mild but definite antithyroid effect when
given in doses of 200 mg. or more. It suppressed the uptake
of radioactive iodine in normal subjects and lowered
the basal metabolic rate in hyperthyroid patients. At
present the mechanism of this antithyroid action is unknown,
and prolonged administration of thalidomide is not advisable
until more is known about it."
And we have this, a study published in January 1958, also in the British Medical Journal and entitled "Antithyroid Activity of N-Phthalyl Glutamic Acid: "N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide (K 17) was first synthesized
in Germany by Kunz et al. (1956). . . This tasteless white crystalline substance (sound familiar, Accent users?) is an imide of glutamic acid and a derivative of piperidine. It is reported to have a 'calming psychological effect' and has been used extensively on the Continent in doses of 25 to 50 mg. two to four times daily, when it acts as a daytime sedative, while in doses of 50 to 100 mg. it acts as a night-time hypnotic (Esser and Heinzler, 1956: Jung,1956)."
A well-known drug composed at least in part of glutamic acid (MSG) was shown to inhibit thyroid activity and lower the basal metabolic rate in the subjects studied. The authors write this: "From the results obtained it appears that N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide has a mild but definite antithyroid activity." (I encourage you to read this study and others online; they're easily found.)
To recap again: A substance that's common in our food supply and also in the vaccines we give our children and pets isn't clearly labeled and has been shown in the past to be a primary ingredient in a drug that acts as a sedative and hypnotic and causes antithyroid activity and lowers the basal metabolism rate, not to mention the flipper thing. And the worldwide obesity rate has skyrocketed since the widespread introduction of MSG around the world.
And I have to wonder whether the famous "post-lunch" drowsiness is actually glutamic acid's sedative effect. And whether the surge in immune system disorders is attributable at least in part to glutamic acid's hypnotic presence in nearly everything we consume. And whether some children's inability to concentrate and (sorry, but I have to say it) some children's seeming dullness can be traced back to their consumption of glutamic acid in everything from infant formula to breakfast cereal to soft drinks.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions. But pray we don't get to the flipper stage again.
Other articles on MSG and aspartame:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/25/Perspective/Want_full_disclosure_.shtml
http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/spin-on-aspartame.html
I’m going to attempt to lay this out logically, and I appreciate the help of my friends at the Truth in Labeling Campaign, who have fought much longer than I to get the news out about this toxic, even deadly substance. Then I'll let you form your own conclusions about monosodium glutamate, otherwise known as MSG, glutamic acid, and glutamate.
MSG has, over the past decades, become such a common ingredient in most of what we eat and drink, not to mention what we feed to our pets and even inject into them and ourselves, that many of have become so accustomed to seeing the substance listed (under a host of misleading names) that we’ve perhaps become blase and accepting: It’s in our food, guess we have to accept it.
That may change for you as you continue reading.
Point #1: We need to change the way we think about MSG. For years, it seems, we have been thinking of MSG as an ingredient. Our favorite restaurant says they don’t add MSG, and we’re happy. But MSG is essentially two ingredients: salt and glutamic acid. It’s not the salt that’s the problem, it’s the glutamic acid.
Point #2: Glutamic acid is the result of processing proteins. Glutamic acid is an amino acid that acts as a neurotransmitter; that is, it affects your brain, and in a big way. When we say we’re ‘allergic’ to MSG, or we have a ‘reaction’ to MSG, we’re referring to the glutamic acid and not to the salt.
Point #3: Glutamic acid has been used for decades to cause obesity (and aspartic acid to cause brain damage) in laboratory animals. Its effects have been observed to cause a host of physical problems as well, from shortness of breath to cardiac irregularities and even death.
Point #4: Hydrolyzed vegetable proteins contain glutamic acid and they are used in countless products as flavor enhancers, which is the primary purpose of MSG. For evidence, please read the following: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Hydrolyzed%20Vegetable%20Proteins_ForTheWeb_8-10-10.pdf.
Point #5: Despite our efforts, avoiding glutamic acid is difficult at best, impossible at worst. The substance hides under a number of names, and here's a list: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/Ingredients_WithEnumbers_6.4.10.pdf
Point #6: There's more to MSG than even I knew.
To recap, MSG is toxic, it's in nearly everything we consume or drink, scientists have known for decades that it causes obesity and a wide, very wide, range of physical ailments (too many to list here), and a label proclaiming "No MSG added" is merely splitting hairs: The producer may not have added the ingredient known as MSG but it did add often copious amounts of glutamic acid in its various forms, including hydrolyzed proteins. The Devil, as always, is in the details.
Here is the one detail I didn't know until very recently. The drug known as Thalidomide, which caused such horrific birth defects in England, is still in use; in fact the National Institutes of Health, NIH, have posted a list of warnings about using the drug, which you can read here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001053
And Thalidomide is, according to the National Cancer Institute, also part of the NIH, a “synthetic derivative of glutamic acid (alpha-phthalimido-glutarimide) with teratogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic properties." Teratogenic means able to disturb the growth and development of a fetus. Immunomodulatory means altering the immune system. And when pregnant women take an antiangiogenic agent, the developing fetus will not form blood vessels properly, which halts the development of fetal limbs and circulatory systems. When women were given Thalidomide in the late '50s and early '60s, their babies were born with flippers instead of arms and legs.
However, Thalidomide was used for something else at that time in Europe: It was a sedative. Apocryphal evidence says it was known as the "babysitter," because it kept children quiet while their parents were otherwise occupied. From a British Medical Journal piece published in 1958, we see this on a readily available form of Thalidomide sold under the tradename Distaval:
"Distaval Tablets and Distaval Forte Tablets (Distillers
Co. (Biochemicals) Ltd.).--These tablets contain thalidomide,
or N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide. There is 25 mg.
in each distaval tablet and 100 mg. in each distaval forte
tablet. This substance was introduced in 1955 in Germany, where
it has been widely used as a daytime sedative (25-50 mg. two
to four times daily) and to induce sleep at night (50-100 mg.).
Its hypnotic action lasts for 4-6 hours, so that its effect
resembles that of the medium-acting barbiturates such as
butobarbitone. The early clinical reports indicated that it
was virtually free from harmful side-effects, and no toxic
symptoms could be produced in animals by the highest doses
which solubility permitted. Recently, however, it has been
shown to have a mild but definite antithyroid effect when
given in doses of 200 mg. or more. It suppressed the uptake
of radioactive iodine in normal subjects and lowered
the basal metabolic rate in hyperthyroid patients. At
present the mechanism of this antithyroid action is unknown,
and prolonged administration of thalidomide is not advisable
until more is known about it."
And we have this, a study published in January 1958, also in the British Medical Journal and entitled "Antithyroid Activity of N-Phthalyl Glutamic Acid: "N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide (K 17) was first synthesized
in Germany by Kunz et al. (1956). . . This tasteless white crystalline substance (sound familiar, Accent users?) is an imide of glutamic acid and a derivative of piperidine. It is reported to have a 'calming psychological effect' and has been used extensively on the Continent in doses of 25 to 50 mg. two to four times daily, when it acts as a daytime sedative, while in doses of 50 to 100 mg. it acts as a night-time hypnotic (Esser and Heinzler, 1956: Jung,1956)."
A well-known drug composed at least in part of glutamic acid (MSG) was shown to inhibit thyroid activity and lower the basal metabolic rate in the subjects studied. The authors write this: "From the results obtained it appears that N-phthalyl glutamic acid imide has a mild but definite antithyroid activity." (I encourage you to read this study and others online; they're easily found.)
To recap again: A substance that's common in our food supply and also in the vaccines we give our children and pets isn't clearly labeled and has been shown in the past to be a primary ingredient in a drug that acts as a sedative and hypnotic and causes antithyroid activity and lowers the basal metabolism rate, not to mention the flipper thing. And the worldwide obesity rate has skyrocketed since the widespread introduction of MSG around the world.
And I have to wonder whether the famous "post-lunch" drowsiness is actually glutamic acid's sedative effect. And whether the surge in immune system disorders is attributable at least in part to glutamic acid's hypnotic presence in nearly everything we consume. And whether some children's inability to concentrate and (sorry, but I have to say it) some children's seeming dullness can be traced back to their consumption of glutamic acid in everything from infant formula to breakfast cereal to soft drinks.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions. But pray we don't get to the flipper stage again.
Other articles on MSG and aspartame:
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/25/Perspective/Want_full_disclosure_.shtml
http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/spin-on-aspartame.html
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sleight of Hand from the Meat Industry
Next time you're shopping for meat, poultry or fish, remember two words: meat glue.
Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? It's what the food industry uses to literally glue scraps and leftovers together to form one perfect-looking cut of meat. Scraps of beef, for instance, can be stuck together to form what looks like a perfect tenderloin; scraps of fish can be joined to form what looks like a fillet.
The obvious financial shenanigans aside--are you paying for the tenderloin, or for beef scraps?--let's look at what the meat glue itself is made from. The two primary kinds are very different, although both act as protein binders. The less objectionable type is transglutaminase, which in the 1960s was first isolated from guinea pig livers. Thankfully, I guess, the global operation known as Ajinomoto (purveyor of such fine flavor enhancers as MSG) began using bacteria to produce transglutaminase, which it sells under the brand name Activa.
Activa actually does look good when compared with the second type of meat glue, a combination of thrombin and fibrinogen, most often obtained from bovine and porcine blood plasma. Cow blood. Pig blood. In other words, your chicken may also be pork, at least in part. Your flounder may also be cow, at least in part.
The ick factor aside, if your supermarket is less than honest with consumers--yes, it's been known to happen--and your religion specifically excludes pork from your diet, you may be violating your own religious laws unknowingly. Or perhaps you're a modified vegetarian eating fish but not meat; again, you're violating your own moral and/or ethical standards without your knowledge.
The website of FX Technology, the Nebraska-based company that produces the thrombin-and-fibrinogen meat glue known as Fibrimex, says its products are "derived from a vast assortment of proteins," which is even more frightening than just knowing about the cows and pigs. The company also says their product will "change the way you think about meat."
Mission accomplished, Fibrimex! It already has.
Sounds disgusting, doesn't it? It's what the food industry uses to literally glue scraps and leftovers together to form one perfect-looking cut of meat. Scraps of beef, for instance, can be stuck together to form what looks like a perfect tenderloin; scraps of fish can be joined to form what looks like a fillet.
The obvious financial shenanigans aside--are you paying for the tenderloin, or for beef scraps?--let's look at what the meat glue itself is made from. The two primary kinds are very different, although both act as protein binders. The less objectionable type is transglutaminase, which in the 1960s was first isolated from guinea pig livers. Thankfully, I guess, the global operation known as Ajinomoto (purveyor of such fine flavor enhancers as MSG) began using bacteria to produce transglutaminase, which it sells under the brand name Activa.
Activa actually does look good when compared with the second type of meat glue, a combination of thrombin and fibrinogen, most often obtained from bovine and porcine blood plasma. Cow blood. Pig blood. In other words, your chicken may also be pork, at least in part. Your flounder may also be cow, at least in part.
The ick factor aside, if your supermarket is less than honest with consumers--yes, it's been known to happen--and your religion specifically excludes pork from your diet, you may be violating your own religious laws unknowingly. Or perhaps you're a modified vegetarian eating fish but not meat; again, you're violating your own moral and/or ethical standards without your knowledge.
The website of FX Technology, the Nebraska-based company that produces the thrombin-and-fibrinogen meat glue known as Fibrimex, says its products are "derived from a vast assortment of proteins," which is even more frightening than just knowing about the cows and pigs. The company also says their product will "change the way you think about meat."
Mission accomplished, Fibrimex! It already has.
Monday, July 5, 2010
FDA has their thumb on the scales
The last time I prepared frozen fish, I was amazed at the amount of water left in the dish after cooking. Lots and lots of water. I happened to mention it in passing to one of my (at that time) students, and he laughed.
He worked in a fish processing plant, he told me, and one of the things the company did to the product was add chemicals to the fish to make them retain water. Heaver fish, more money, he told me.
Turns out he was right on the money. The Codex Alimentarius, the global organization setting the standards for what's in our food supply, was created in 1963 by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Also part of the Codex are our own FDA and USDA--and, of course, the industry insiders, lobbyists and industry-paid consultants that infest our federal agencies.
The Codex publishes standards for pretty much everything we can consume, and in their standards for frozen fish--Codex Stan 165-1989 Rev. 1, 1995, if you're curious--we find the following additives allowed: monosodium orthophosphate, monopotassium orthophosphate, tetrasodium diphosphate, tetrapotassium diphosphate, pentasodium triphosphate . . .
What they all have in common is their ability to retain water. (Well, that and fertilize your lawn.) What they also do is make more money for the companies using them in their products. An interesting study in the Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences in 2008 says this: "Thus, the seafood processing companies have a great concern in retaining this water, first for economic reasons (seafood is sold by weight) and secondly, for the quality of the final product."
First, of course, the money; quality comes second. So they pump our fish up with chemicals to keep the water in them; the fish weigh more, the companies earn more, and we eat fish full of phosphates.
At least we get to keep the water the fish leave behind when we cook them. Bon appetit!
He worked in a fish processing plant, he told me, and one of the things the company did to the product was add chemicals to the fish to make them retain water. Heaver fish, more money, he told me.
Turns out he was right on the money. The Codex Alimentarius, the global organization setting the standards for what's in our food supply, was created in 1963 by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Also part of the Codex are our own FDA and USDA--and, of course, the industry insiders, lobbyists and industry-paid consultants that infest our federal agencies.
The Codex publishes standards for pretty much everything we can consume, and in their standards for frozen fish--Codex Stan 165-1989 Rev. 1, 1995, if you're curious--we find the following additives allowed: monosodium orthophosphate, monopotassium orthophosphate, tetrasodium diphosphate, tetrapotassium diphosphate, pentasodium triphosphate . . .
What they all have in common is their ability to retain water. (Well, that and fertilize your lawn.) What they also do is make more money for the companies using them in their products. An interesting study in the Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences in 2008 says this: "Thus, the seafood processing companies have a great concern in retaining this water, first for economic reasons (seafood is sold by weight) and secondly, for the quality of the final product."
First, of course, the money; quality comes second. So they pump our fish up with chemicals to keep the water in them; the fish weigh more, the companies earn more, and we eat fish full of phosphates.
At least we get to keep the water the fish leave behind when we cook them. Bon appetit!
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