Pink slime factories shuttered after massive public backlash

by Jonathan Benson, staff writer

(NaturalNews) For several decades now, the conventional beef industry has secretly been lacing ground beef products with an industrial, ammonia-laced byproduct known as "pink slime," a disturbing fact that recently came to the forefront of national attention after Food Network chef Jamie Oliver first drew attention to its existence. And consumer backlash has been so strong ever since that a number of supermarket chains, restaurants, and even schools have decided to stop supplying it, which has caused its primary producer, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), to close three of its four manufacturing plants.

USA Today and others are reporting that Dakota Dunes, South Dakota-based BPI is temporarily closing its Waterloo, Iowa; Garden City, Kansas; and Amarillo, Texas plants for an indefinite period of time as a result of widespread consumer rejection of pink slime products. Workers at these plants will continue to receive pay and benefits for the next 60 days, but it is unclear what will happen after these next two months expire, should the plants continue to remain closed.

Meanwhile, BPI is launching an aggressive public relations campaign to fight back against its critics, which includes claiming that pink slime is "100 percent beef," and that it is a highly-nutritious and safe product. And many in the media are jumping onboard this propaganda bandwagon by spinning the situation back against consumers, who are technically victims that have been been duped all these years into buying ground beef products that were secretly adulterated with pink slime.

In case you missed the original story, pink slime, which is officially known as "lean finely textured beef," is basically a low-cost ground beef filler composed of beef scraps that are mashed, processed with a chemical ammonia solution, and turned into an unappetizing pink paste, the pictures of which have circulated the internet in recent months (http://www.naturalnews.com/035255_pink_slime_USDA_school_lunches.html).

This pink slime has been added to roughly 70 percent of all ground beef products since the 1990s, but few were aware of it. Pink slime is obviously not labeled on ground beef packages, and the only way consumers can know for sure that they are not consuming it is to buy local or organic ground beef, or to watch the beef being ground fresh before buying it.

BPI, mainstream media launch attack on consumers for rejecting pink slime

It is abundantly clear that the vast majority of American consumers are not interested in feeding their children a highly-processed additive that has been treated with toxic ammonia, which is why the product is being pulled from grocery store shelves, restaurant menus, and schools all across the country. But BPI is not going down without a fight, as it is launching a campaign that basically insults the intelligence of Americans by claiming that pink slime is no different from real beef.

But according to former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist Gerald Zirnstein, pink slime is not actually meat, nor is it as nutritious as meat, a sentiment to which his former colleague Carl Custer also agrees. And Kit Foshee, a former executive at BPI, appears to hold the same view, having told ABC News that pink slime is processed from fat and cuts that would otherwise not ever be used as food.

"Microbiologically safe and nutritionally complete are two different issues," said Custer to ABC News, referring to BPI's claim that pink slime contains little fat and is pathogen-free. "It may be pink [but], nutritionally, it is not equivalent to whole-muscle tissue" (http://abcnews.go.com).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.guardian.co.uk

http://yourlife.usatoday.com

Suzanne

Mad cow disease detected in U.S. dairy cow; South Korea halts all US beef sales

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) It's baaack! Mad cow disease, our favorite prion from planet Bovinopolis, has once again reared its ugly folded protein head in a California dairy cow. It was detected there just a few days ago, but have no fear, courageous American beef eaters: U.S. "authorities" have declared it to be a "random mutation," meaning that mad cow disease prions spontaneously appeared without cause in that cow, and it most certainly absolutely assuredly and definitely was not due to anything in the cow feed, they say.

That's a relief, eh? Because if we can explain mad cow disease by simply invoking MAGIC (spontaneous generation, etc.), then who needs to look further into what these dairy cows are being fed?

It used to be that cows in the USA were fed the ground up parts of other cows, including spinal cord and brain material. Yummm... kinda makes your burger just a bit more juicy, doesn't it? But that practice was stopped -- at least they SAY it was stopped -- after the last mad cow scare in 2006. But who knows whether or not the occasional cow head gets tossed into the feed grinder, eh?

So now, whenever there's a mad cow scare, agricultural authorities (who are so deeply in bed with the cow industry that their mattresses actually have hoof prints on them) simply announce the disease happened by magic! "Random mutation" is the scientific version of "it magically appeared," of course, just to make it sound like it's based in science.

Beef sales halted in Korea

In response to this latest case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the USA, South Korea has banned all sales of U.S. beef. This is almost certainly a wild overreaction, given that U.S. beef sold every single day in South Korea is contaminated with antibiotics, growth hormones, and GMO artifacts from the cows eating genetically modified soy.

But that doesn't seem to bother anyone. It's the mad cow disease that freaks them out -- even though this dairy cow wasn't even slaughtered and put into the food supply!

Japan said it would keep US beef sales flowing, and Taiwan shelved its regulatory discussion of the issue to wait and see what happens.

What happens if you EAT mad cow beef?

Here's the best part about mad cow disease: If you eat a piece of meat infected with it, the folded prion proteins in the tissue go into your body, make their way into your brain, and then they turn your brain into gray goo!

Seriously, mad cow disease literally turns you into a brain-dead zombie. And if other people eat your brain (for whatever weird reason), then THEY become zombies, too.

And cooking the meat doesn't help because mad cow prions aren't even alive. So they can't be killed! Meaning that any piece of meat infected with these prions can potentially infect a consumer who eats it, turning them into a zombie.

(I'm not making this up. This is really how prions work.)

So what happens after your brain turns into gray goo from eating prions? Then you become what I called "zombified." As the prions start to eat your brain, you begin to exhibit bizarre behavioral and psychiatric dysfunction. You also start to lose rational cognitive function and end up eating Pop-Tarts and voting for globalist infiltrators for President.

In other words, you become a typical American! In fact, there is a theory floating around that American consumers are already heavily prion-damaged which is why people seem so bizarrely uninformed and incapable of rational thought. Is it possible they are simply one burger over the prion limit for healthy brains?

Maybe we should have a rule at the voting booth next time: If your brain has turned into grey prion goo, you don't get to vote!

Sources include:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/25/health/california-mad-cow/?hpt=hp_c2
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9UBQGL00.htm

Suzanne

Excessive red meat consumption found to increase risk of stroke

by John Phillip

(NaturalNews) Very few dietary topics spark more controversy than consumption of red meat and risk of diseases ranging from cancer to heart disease and diabetes. Most nutrition scientists indicate a high protein diet is essential to promote vibrant health, aid in weight management and lower the risk from metabolic dysfunction. A rapidly mounting body of research now shows that the type and quantity of protein consumed can raise the risk of stroke in a serving-dependent manner.

Researchers conducting a meta-analysis of six large studies conducted in the US, Japan and Sweden over the past decade published the results of their work in Stroke, the Journal of the American Heart Association. Consumption of red meat, including beef, pork, lamb, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and bacon spike the risk of ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke event.

Dr. Joanna Kaluza of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland noted the findings are "of great public health importance because of the widespread consumption of red meat and the high morbidity and mortality associated with stroke." The authors explain that eating red meat did not increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

Processed and factory farmed red meats dramatically raise stroke risk

The meta-analysis included a total of 329,495 participants and resulted in 10,630 cases of stroke. All of the studies statistically adjusted for age, body mass index, and alcohol consumption, as well as smoking, physical activity, diabetes, hypertension, energy intake, and fruit and vegetable consumption. Each daily serving of fresh, red meat increased stroke risk by 11 percent. Similarly, processed meats increased risk by 13 percent. All meat consumption combined increased stroke risk by 12 percent.

In an effort to explain the results, the researchers suggested a few possible mechanisms to explain the findings, including consumption of high levels of saturated fats, which could lead to a greater risk of stroke from higher levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. The authors also note that red meat contains a high level of heme iron and theorize that "high doses of iron may lead to oxidative stress, a state with increased peroxidation of lipids, protein modification, and DNA damage."

Excessive consumption of foods high in heme iron lead to the development of many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, neurological disorders, and chronic inflammation. Many research studies fail to account for the type of red meat consumed though, making the false assumption that animals fed fattening grains and injected with growth hormones and antibiotics have the same effect when consumed on human health as grass fed, free range cattle.

Most holistic nutritionists agree that consumption of moderate amounts of red meat fed from certified organic pastures is important for human health. The results of this meta-study confirm that processed meats and factory farmed beef significantly increase risk of stroke in a serving-dependent fashion.

Sources for this article include:

http://stroke.ahajournals.org
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22851546
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Strokes/34072

Suzanne

Bears repeating: Red Meat Increases STROKE RISK

Warning! Suffering the most common type of stroke (ischemic) becomes more likely with each daily serving of fresh or processed red meat.

After reviewing multiple studies from different countries, researchers from Warsaw University in Poland concluded that a daily serving of red meat including beef, pork, lamb or ham boosts the risk of a clot-induced stroke by 11%.

Even worse, processed meats elevated the risk to an alarming 13%.

Suzanne

RED MEAT

Researchers who looked at the results of 3 large studies found that those who ate the most red meat were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Indeed, for each additional daily serving of red meat, a person's risk of developing the disorder increased 14%. --Reader's Digest, Dec. 2011/Jan. 2012.

Suzanne

I work in a teaching hospital. Today I attended an academic lecture given by Dr. Deb Bennett-Woods, from Regis University Center for Ethics in the Health Professions, on the ethical implications of technological advance in medical practice.

In this lecture, she stated that the cells of our bodies are programmed for humans to live for 120 years, but that it is life-style issues that cause us to die at an earlier age. She went on to state that she expects within the next 20 years technology will have reached the point where our cells could give humans a life-span of 150 years.

While some would likely argue with her statement about 120 and 150 years, it clearly has implications as to life style that should interest Adventists.

Antibiotics infused into processed meats promotes growth of deadly bacteria

by John Phillip

(NaturalNews) Health conscious individuals know that processed meats in the form of sausage, bologna and pepperoni contain chemical preservatives called nitrites that have been shown to promote cancer growth, and avoid these manufactured foods entirely. Unfortunately, millions of unsuspecting children and adults eat an estimated 50 pounds of processed meats each year, significantly raising the risk of many forms of cancer and bacterial infection as well.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have published the result of a study in mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology that explains how antibiotic residues in uncured pepperoni or salami meat are potent enough to weaken helpful bacteria that processors add to acidify the sausage and make it safe for consumption. Processed meat manufacturers commonly infuse meats such as sausage with lactic-acid producing bacteria to control fermentation and increase acid content of the meat.

In an effort to control bacteria that may have existed in the original raw meat, manufacturers also kill any beneficial bacteria, allowing pathogenic bacteria strains to proliferate. Consumption of these processed meats can significantly increase the risk of bacterial infection, especially in the young and elderly populations, as well as those individuals with compromised immune systems.

Consumption of processed meats greatly increases risk of bacterial infection

The study authors commented "We can have a situation where residual antibiotics in the meat can prevent or reduce fermentation by the lactic acid bacteria, but these concentrations do not effect survival or even multiplication of pathogens." Antibiotics used to promote growth or to treat disease in livestock can eventually end up in processed meats and ultimately pass to humans where they wreak metabolic havoc and promote the overgrowth of bacterial strains in the digestive tract.

To validate their theory, researchers added two commonly used antibiotics to meat inoculated with lactic-acid-producing bacteria and several strains of pathogens frequently encountered in the unprocessed meat. They followed the progress of the fermentation and tracked the survival of the pathogens. The scientists determined that several different starter cultures of lactic-acid-producing bacteria were sensitive to these antibiotics and did not acidify the sausage meat effectively. They noted the results could explain why people sometimes get sick from eating fermented sausage.

The study team concluded their results show antibiotics can potentially have a "paradoxical effect that would increase the risk of food borne illness: antibiotic residues reduce the effectiveness of bacteria that should make the sausages safe but don't affect the bacteria that can cause illness." This research provides sufficient evidence that processed meats must be avoided entirely to avoid significantly increased risk of digestive cancers and bacterial infection.

Sources for this article include:

http://mbio.asm.org/content/3/5/e00190-12
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-08/asfm-ari082412.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120828093244.htm

Suzanne

Don't want to die before your time? Stop eating processed meat

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor

(NaturalNews) A new study just published in Biomed Central's journal, BMC Medicine, has found a strong association between eating processed meat and developing heart disease and cancer. While other studies have found health risks from processed meats before, the new research is remarkable because it involved a huge number of research subjects -- about half a million men and women.

Why does this large number make the finding so important? Researchers have previously had trouble measuring the effect of eating meat on health because of what is called a "confounding effect" of the lifestyles of many people who don't eat meat. Vegetarians tend to have healthier lifestyles in general. And because non-meat eaters are less likely to smoke, are less overweight and are more likely to exercise, it's been hard to see if it is the fact they don't eat meat or these their other healthy behaviors that make vegetarians often healthier than meat eaters. It takes a very large study that controls for confounding effects in order to pinpoint specific consequences of eating meat and processed meat and to make sure the findings are isolated from other lifestyle choices.

In all, the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study involved 10 countries and 23 centers in Europe. The researchers found that a diet high in processed meat was linked to other unhealthy lifestyle choices. For example, people who ate the most processed meat ate less fruit and vegetables and were more likely to smoke. Men who ate a lot of meat also tended to drink more alcohol.

The study's results showed that a person's risk of dying prematurely from any cause went up with the amount of processed meat eaten. This held true after correcting for confounding variables. "Risks of dying earlier from cancer and cardiovascular disease also increased with the amount of processed meat eaten," Professor Sabine Rohrmann of the University of Zurich, who led this analysis, said in a media statement. "Overall, we estimate that three percent of premature deaths each year could be prevented if people ate less than 20g processed meat per day."

Another new study, recently published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer, by Paige E. Miller, PhD of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues also brings up concerns about processed meats. The scientists concluded that their research supports the idea that increased exposure to chemicals in processed meats including nitrites and nitrates, ".. is a plausible mechanism by which red and processed meat may increase colorectal cancer risk."

Sources:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmed/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584417/
http://www.naturalnews.com/processed_meat.html

Suzanne