I know a medical researcher who is the legal guardian for three grandchildren who have been vaccinated fully. The youngest grandchild has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. The middle grandchild recently contracted pertussis (whooping cough), which has the family doctor perplexed since the child is up to date on all vaccinations. The doctor’s staff says there’s been a bleed through: The youngster caught the pertussis bug even though he was fully vaccinated against whooping cough. The doctor can’t figure out how that happened.

I’d like to help my friend understand the dynamics of this situation, but I don’t think she’ll listen.

Spreading problem

Interestingly, another tidbit the doctor’s staff shared with the grandmother was that they are seeing quite a number of fully vaccinated children coming down with pertussis. It seems vaccines are not protecting children from diseases they are vaccinated against.

I think you have to be skeptical about government case reporting that blames the pertussis problem on non-vaccinated children. Consider what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had to say in its Jan. 14, 2011, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR):

Despite sustained high coverage for childhood pertussis vaccination, pertussis remains poorly controlled in the United States. A total of 16,858 pertussis cases and 12 infant deaths were reported in 2009 (1; CDC, unpublished data, 2009). Although 2005 recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) called for vaccination with tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis (Tdap) for adolescents and adults to improve immunity against pertussis, Tdap coverage is 56% among adolescents and <6% among adults (2,3). In October 2010, ACIP recommended expanded use of Tdap. This report provides the updated recommendations, summarizes the safety and effectiveness data considered by ACIP, and provides guidance for implementing the recommendations. [1]

Expanded use of vaccinations definitely is being enforced big time in many States like California where students advancing or transferring into the seventh grade need proof of an adolescent whooping cough booster immunization called DTaP. Well, it seems those vaccinations aren’t doing what everyone is led to believe they ought to do. Instead, bleed throughs are happening more often than mainstream medical people apparently want reported to the CDC so the problem can be blamed on non-vaccinated children. Non-vaccinated children, by the way, probably have healthier immune systems than those children who are fully vaccinated. In the case of pertussis, it seems that fully vaccinated children’s immune systems are incapable of defending against the very infectious disease the vaccinations are supposed to prime them to defeat. That most likely is due to the fact that new strains of pertussis possess modified forms for which there are no apparent immune response factors within the human immune system or in vaccinology.

Outbreaks

There have been well-documented pertussis outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations. In Ohio in 1993, of those who contracted pertussis, 90 percent had been vaccinated and 10 percent had not. Those statistics are taken from CDC and Official Surveillance data reported by N.Z. Miller in Vaccine Safety Manual. [4] I think the CDC is not reporting or classifying data in that fashion anymore since it shows that vaccines are not effective. However, bleed throughs are more common than the CDC admits and are responsible for children contracting infectious diseases in spite of being fully vaccinated.

Of those 16,858 pertussis cases in 2009 reported in MMWR, my guess is that somewhere between 80 and 90 percent — maybe more — occurred in fully vaccinated children. Let’s compare some reported statistics on fully vaccinated children:

In 2001, 62.8 percent of US children 19 to 35 months of age were fully immunized with all the vaccines that were recommended at that time.[2]

Still, the percentage of fully vaccinated children remains high, at 92 percent, the poll found, according to the Jan. 20, 2011, US News & World Report Health. [3]

In the face of these statistics, the medical profession seems to be clueless and possibly helpless. Thank goodness for an antibiotic that still works against pertussis or our little fellow in this story could be in for a debilitating health problem.

Resurgence

According to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we are seeing a resurgence in pertussis and a few other childhood infectious diseases like measles, which Federal health agencies are blaming on non-vaccinated children who contract the illnesses and pass them on to others. Really, how can that be, since vaccines are touted as preventing and immunizing children from contracting childhood infectious diseases? Currently, fully vaccinated kids are coming down with bleed throughs that doctors can’t seem to figure out. So they blame it on the non-vaccinated.

Inquisitive about how my friend’s grandchild was doing, I asked how many days the child was absent from school. Only a day was the answer. What? “Isn’t he going to infect other children?” I asked. Apparently not, according to the doctor’s office, since he was given the generic version of the antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), which is working on eliminating his pertussis infection.

I was appalled that the doctor permitted the infectious child to attend school. Long before vaccination mandates, children who contracted normal and commonly anticipated childhood infectious diseases like measles, chicken pox and whooping cough (which then provide lifelong immunity) were sequestered at home until the infection ran its course — usually a week or so. If infected children are being sent back into classrooms with active-stage infections, one has to wonder what’s going on with evidence-based medicine.

Consider the fact that countries with fewer vaccines given to babies in their first year have better infant mortality rates. This is data from the Neil Z. Miller and Gary S. Goldman paper Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity? [5]

This chart uses evidence-based information indicating those countries that mandate fewer vaccines during the first year of life have a significantly lower infant mortality rate than the United States. It seems that the more vaccines are given, the more problematic infectious diseases become, morphing to outsmart vaccines.

Documentation

Greg Battle from Australia documented in his 1997 book, Vaccination, A Parents Dilemma, that pertussis (whooping cough) in his country went from 950 deaths in 1880 to 150 deaths in 1940, the year a pertussis vaccine was first introduced in Australia. What that statistic says is that pertussis was self-regulating and waning on its own without the intervention of a vaccine. What transpired: Sanitation improved greatly with public water and sewers while refrigeration helped to maintain a better food supply and nutritional values.

Unfortunately, in the United States, we now have polluted public water systems laced with sodium fluoride, a protoplasmic poison, and other chemicals; plus the national diet is a nutritional disaster leading to astronomical numbers of Americans ill and overweight.

We need to nurture and support our immune systems through a lifestyle that enhances immunity via organically grown food, antioxidants, fiber and other nutrients. We also must eliminate sugar- and chemical-laden processed foods. That’s really the way to keep healthy.

References

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6001a4.htm

[2] http://www.immunizationinfo.org/science/demographics-unvaccinated-children

[3] http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/01/20/slightly-more-than-half-of-americans-say-vaccines-dont-cause-autism-poll

[4] Miller, NZ. Vaccine Safety Manual, N.A. Press. Santa Fe, NM. 2008, p.140

[5] http://vaccineliberationarmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/MillerGoldman.pdf

Long Lived Seed

Quinoa has been around for more than 5,000 years and is still going strong. Most quinoa is organically grown in the Southern Hemisphere (Bolivia) with the use of traditional farming methods on high-altitude farms without chemicals. It hasn’t been tinkered with to date by genetic engineering (GM), and Southern Hemisphere farmers are fighting hard to maintain their ancient cultivation practices.

Not only is quinoa a complete vegetable protein source, containing all the essential amino acids, it includes a wealth of many of the nutrients the human body needs for optimal health.

A 1-cup serving of uncooked quinoa contains 24 grams of protein, close to 48 percent of the recommended daily value (DV), which means quinoa does not need to be combined with other foods to make a complete protein equivalent to meat, fish, eggs or dairy. It is only 16 percent fat.  However, the omega 6 fatty acid content is low and not in the proper ratio to omega 3 fatty acids. So you should also consume foods like fish that are rich in omega-3s.

Quinoa contains virtually no sugars and boasts 36 percent of the DV for carbohydrates (mostly as starch) and a whopping 48 percent DV for dietary fiber. Plus, it tastes deliciously nutty. Even though it is lacking in vitamins C and D, it is a vegetarian powerhouse of other vitamins and minerals. It’s gluten-free. And, best of all, it cooks in 15 minutes.

Nutrient Hero

However, here’s what may be the most important aspect of quinoa: In the event of a disaster with no gas or electricity available for cooking, quinoa can be soaked in water until mushy enough to eat and still provide a belly full of nutritious food.

Furthermore, quinoa can be sprouted for eating as a fresh vegetable; so stock a survival kit with a seed-growing jar and enough water to subsist on. Helpfully, quinoa doesn’t require much storage space and will last for several years in hermetically sealed pouches.

Quinoa can be prepared in a pot with a lid over a camping stove or even over an open-air fire pit since it doesn’t take long to cook. Just remember to have a supply of old-fashioned wooden matches — some independent hardware stores still sell them — to use for fire. While you are at it, get field savvy about edible wild plants that you can chop up and place in the cook pot to make survival stew. Remember, it’s survival food, not a gourmet restaurant meal. However, it will keep you alive and thriving nutritiously.

One caution when preparing quinoa for any purpose: It needs to be rinsed thoroughly to remove the saponin coating on each seed. If not rinsed off, the saponin may convey a bitter taste that overwhelms its delicious, almost sweet, nut-like taste.

The Next Level

To take survival food to a higher level, combine quinoa with survival rations of canned beans (like chickpeas or kidney beans), walnuts, and fresh sprouts grown from alfalfa, arugula, broccoli, clover, radish or other non-GM heirloom sprouting seeds.

You can find suitable seeds at SeedCatalog.com (an excellent resource).

If you haven’t yet made food preparations for an emergency, I think you better get started. It’s better to be prepared and not have to use your rations than to need them and have to go hungry.

Doctors And Weight

The article “Impact of Physician BMI on Obesity Care and Beliefs,” published in the journal Obesity, indicates doctors contribute to the obesity problem that is now pandemic in the United States.

Researchers Sara N. Bleich, Wendy L. Bennett, Kimberly A. Gudzune and Lisa A. Cooper documented the findings of a national cross-sectional survey they conducted of 500 primary care physicians for three weeks early in 2011. They found that doctors who were not overweight talked to their obese patients about how to lose weight. On the other hand, overweight physicians (almost half of all doctors) offered no similar information.

An Overweight Nation

Currently, one-third of U.S. adults are overweight enough to be classified as obese. At the same time, 17 percent of children ages 2 to 19 (12.5 million) are also morbidly overweight. Interestingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) points out that obesity prevalence has tripled among children and adolescents since the 1980s. That’s a result of almost four decades of fast foods and nutrient-lacking, chemical-containing, packaged junk foods, plus other factors. The fact that we’re consuming foods made from genetically engineered/modified organisms (GMOs) probably adds to the problem. Plus, a four-fold increase for mandated vaccinations which may contain MSG may also be contributing. MSG has been shown to be a fattening agent for lab animals.[1]

Epidemic With Murky Causes

Steven M. Schwartz, M.D., in his paper “Obesity in Children,” contends that “…more than 90% of cases (of obesity) are idiopathic [of unknown cause]; less than 10% are associated with hormonal or genetic causes.” As a Nation, we are gaining tremendous amounts of weight, and the medical establishment claims not to understand why.

The plain fact is physicians are at a loss when it comes to understanding human nutrition. One California doctor, John McDougall, wants to do something about it. He supports a bill in his State Legislature which would require physicians to take continuing education courses in nutrition.

Of course, the medical powers-that-be are opposed:

• The California Medical Association keeps fighting against mandates on physicians.
• The California Orthopedic Association claims that a mere seven hours of continuing education is sufficient for a complex subject like nutrition.
• The California Academy of Family Physicians contends that government should not be involved in micromanaging physicians.

Misguided Guidance

Adding to this nutritional confusion, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) promotes unhealthy foods because of its financial ties to the food-processing industry and Big Agriculture (similar to the way doctors take money from Big Pharma for prescribing drugs and vaccinating children).

In January, the ADA’s Journal of the American Dietetic Association changed its name to Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Does that mean there will be a nutrient-centric change in how registered dietitians regard food and nutrition, or will the Journal still promote the food processing industry’s products?

If half of all registered dietitians have advanced degrees in nutrition, then:

1. Why is hospital food (supervised by registered dietitians) so nutritionally disgraceful?  Why do gall bladder surgery patients get as their first postoperative meal fried chicken nuggets?
2. Why are school foods and lunch programs filled with heavy-duty carbohydrates and fried foods?
3. Why isn’t the ADA condemning genetically modified foods?
4. Why is the ADA so vehement about owning the word “nutritionist” when it’s been promoting processed foods for so long and apparently still doesn’t understand nutrient reactions of food within the body, which natural nutritionists address?
5. Why are State ADAs engaging in legislative campaigns to criminalize professionals who function as nutritionists but are not registered dietitians? (You can find out more here.)

Continuing Problem

In the 1970s, I published workbooks on nutrition for schoolchildren. Representative Margaret Heckler, who became President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of Health and Human Services, praised my books at a Congressional hearing in 1979. But when I approached a large health insurer to consider using the books to educate kids in elementary school about nutrition, I was laughed at.

At about the same time, a pediatrician asked me, “Don’t you think if there was something to nutrition, we’d know about it?”

Unfortunately, they didn’t know about nutrition back then and their ignorance has continued.

A hallmark of our modern times is the fact that too many of us now eat processed, chemicalized, ersatz food. So it’s no wonder metabolic and digestive problems are on the rise, as are food allergies and obesity. There are real dangers in consuming the standard American diet. It’s time to get back to real food.

Agrarian Lifestyle

For millennia prior to the Industrial Revolution, most humans lived an agrarian lifestyle and people raised the food they and their families ate. Fast forward to 2012, and other than kitchen or summer gardens, most people don’t grow their own food nor do they put up food for the winter. But growing your own is something that can significantly improve your meals and your health.

Problems with not eating enough fruits and vegetables were evident long ago, particularly when sailors at sea suffered from scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency disease. The Scottish surgeon James Lind in 1753 published a paper arguing that lemons and limes could prevent scurvy. As a result, British ships were outfitted with a supply of citrus fruit and British sailors became known as “Limeys.”

Initially, when food production became industrialized, deficiency diseases became much more widespread. Problems with processed food began in earnest with the milling of rice and wheat, a process that depletes the nutrients in those foods. When these milled grains became widespread, so did vitamin deficiency diseases. For instance, beriberi, a vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency, started appearing in the early 1880s in Asia when consumption of white rice, devoid of B1, became common.

When processed corn meal came into culinary fashion, the deficiency disease pellagra also appeared, causing horrible-looking, painful skin lesions. Pellagra is caused by a deficiency of niacin or vitamin B3. It can also result from getting too little tryptophan, an amino acid precursor to niacin. If untreated, pellagra can kill within three to five years.

To offset deficiency diseases, the U.S. and other governments require food companies to fortify and enrich their products with a variety of nutrients. In 1924, iodine was first added to salt. In the 1930s, Vitamin D was added to milk. In the United States, white flour has been enriched with five nutrients, including thiamine, since 1941.

Incomplete Rescue

But even though food chemistry has prevented obvious deficiency diseases by adding nutrients to processed foods, there’s something sinister that is rearing its ugly head in the research being done by many food scientists: genetically modified foods, GMO foods.

An Age Of Chemicals

Ever since the end of World War II, the introduction of chemicals into our lives and foods has produced profound challenges to our health. The synthetic flavors we consume and the thousands of other chemicals in our environment interfere with the body’s ability not only to function but to synthesize nutrients, since the human liver tends to get rid of anything chemical that is foreign to our physiology.

Rachel Carson, my heroine and the author of Silent Spring, in the 1960s said:

For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death…
For mankind as a whole, a possession infinitely more valuable than individual life is our genetic heritage, our link with past and future… Yet genetic deteriorations through man-made agents is the menace of our time…

Even though Silent Spring is credited with starting the environmental movement, not much has been taken seriously about what she said, especially regarding food.

If deficiency diseases have seemingly been corrected by synthetic chemical nutrients, where does that leave us today nutrition-wise?

Imported Food

Close to 17 percent of the food we eat is imported from foreign countries and many of these, like China, don’t have very stringent supervision of food production.

A while back, infants’ health was threatened by baby formula that contained melamine (a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic). In my book Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking of Our DNA (available here), I discuss much of what most Americans don’t know about food produced in China.

Consider that China is the largest exporter of seafood to the United States. As I note in my book: “Since only 45 percent of China has sewage treatment facilities, raw sewage gets discharged directly into rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters. Much of China’s aquaculture grows in raw sewage contaminated water. How much raw sewage do you think that amounts to?  The estimate is about 3.7 billion tons.” 

Partner Shift

The creation of global food growing partners represents a significant shift in food production. Often, chemicals that are banned in the United States are used in foreign countries and then come back to us in fruits and vegetables sold at the supermarket.

All foods that are grown by big agricultural companies are mostly nutrient-deficient. Industrialized agriculture does not respect the soil in which food is grown. It continuously uses heavy-duty chemical fertilizers to nurture crops. Long gone are the days of crop rotation or even winter crops that are plowed under in spring to provide natural fertilizing agents for the soil. But organic farmers still employ such practices.

GMO Spreads

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) represent the most serious problem with modern agriculture. About 85 percent of the U.S. food chain is contaminated with GMOs even though consumers don’t know about it. Food labeling laws in the United States do not require that GMOs be labeled on food packaging.

The really unfortunate part about GMOs is what we don’t know about their effects. We don’t know the long-term results of eating genetically modified food since humans have not consumed them in their diets until recently. What we do know is what independent scientists are finding and telling us. It’s not reassuring.

Don M. Huber, professor emeritus of plant pathology at Purdue University, claims to have found a troubling new microorganism associated with GMO technology:

A search for the source of animal infections revealed a high population of this newly discovered electron microscopic-sized organism in high concentrations in the soybean meal component of animal feed. It also has been observed in soil, fungal mycelia, soybean leaves and meal, various corn tissues, distillers meal, and fermentation feed products (corn silage, haylage, wheatlage, etc.). The new organism is in very low concentrations or absent from the non-GMO plants and grain samples evaluated to date. [1]

Besides what Huber claims to have found, transgenic organisms, with DNA from different species inserted into them, are cause for concern. (For instance, food companies have inserted fish genes into some of their plants.) While transgenic plants are often able to resist harsh environmental conditions, they are also sometimes made to withstand prolific spraying with glyphosate (RoundUp®), a pesticide that Monsanto (a major GMO producer) mandates farmers sign contracts to use exclusively and prolifically.

Some crops like Bt-corn produce the Bt toxin Bacillus thuringiensis, which protects them from pests. But no one knows if Bt can reproduce and grow in the human intestinal tract, an event that would make humans capable of manufacturing the Bt toxin. And some experts think that food allergies will become even more common from our constant exposure to GMO foods.

Long-Term Consumption

Consumers have been eating GMOs since the late 1990s. Simultaneously, metabolic and digestive problems have grown tremendously, and food allergies are also more widespread. Obesity is now a serious, ubiquitous problem. No one knows what part GMOs have played in these situations.

Nutrient deficiencies are undoubtedly resulting from an American diet filled with highly processed, chemicalized foods. When we eat a diet filled with starch and sugar and fast food rich in saturated fats, we are missing out on enzymes, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and other key nutritional factors.

We need to take back our food sovereignty and not allow others to determine what we must eat. We are unknowingly letting food corporations dictate our diets when we flock to fast food joints and purchase faux foods. Consumers must take charge of the food supply by using the power of the purse and purchase only those foods that are healthful and nutrient dense, preferably organically grown, and not chemicalized.

Ditch GMOs

Let’s start raising our food again with non-GMO seeds. Large chemical companies have taken over seed suppliers and are tinkering with the seeds people sow in their home gardens. Fortunately, heirloom seed companies are still in business. If you want to grow genuine food, search for organic heirloom seed companies on the Internet.

Remember what Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine, said: “Our food should be our medicine; our medicine should be our food,” something big food companies apparently don’t believe or, perhaps, want to prevent you from knowing. Notice that nowhere does Hippocrates mention the word chemicals in his recommendations.

We can look back on our food history and see how science helped create cures for deficiency diseases. But we have absolutely no idea about what will result from our current dietary shift.

[1] http://www.gmfreecymru.org.uk/open_letters/huber_letters.html accessed Feb. 1, 2012

Salty Revelation

In November, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a revelatory paper discussing the relationship of sodium imbalances with cardiovascular events like heart attack, stroke and congestive heart failure among hospitalized patients. One of the findings confirmed a correlation between these problems and having higher or lower sodium levels than the American average of 4,000 to 6,500 mg of sodium a day.

From their analyses, the researchers came up with a J-shaped curve demonstrating that people had cardiovascular problems when they had high and low salt consumption. People in the middle range ran a lower risk. Also, the same researchers noted that the risk of a heart problem didn’t occur until sodium levels reached and/or exceeded 6,500 mg a day. This seems to indicate that we need more sodium than has been generally accepted. But we should limit the type of salt we get in processed foods like potato chips and canned soups.

Across The Great Divide

However, there seems to be a huge scientific divide: Consumers have been told for what seems like ages that daily sodium intake should be no more than 2,000 mg a day according to the World Health Organization (WHO); 1,500 mg a day according to the U.S. American Heart Association (AHA); and 1500 to 2300 mg, depending upon age, per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Personally, and as a retired natural nutritionist, I think the WHO, AHA and HHS figures are — and have been — off the mark for several reasons.

First and foremost, there are subtle differences between plant-based sodium and table salt that the medical and pharmaceutical industries and health agencies don’t make clear to consumers. Said differences influence whether body chemistry works efficiently or detrimentally. Sodium is essential to life processes, and that’s why nature includes it in all food.

Salt Observation

Sodium (Na for the Latin Natrum) is in the alkali metals group of elements possessing number 11 on the Periodic Table of the Elements and is the sixth most-abundant element. The most familiar or common sodium compound is halite (sodium chloride, NaCl) also known as table salt, which is refined salt that is overused — if not abused — by the food processing industry.

Sodium is a key mineral element in maintaining fluid balance in and between cells in the body, plus it plays a vital electrical role critical for nerve function.

Here’s where it may get a little confusing: Humans evolved over thousands upon thousands of years eating plant foods that basically were balanced by nature with correct ratios of sodium to potassium for cellular functions. That apparently unrecognized factoid was not valued, either was forgotten or deliberately ignored, and consequently not factored in when the food processing industry began adding huge amounts of salt to food. In addition, food additives deposited in processed foods often include sodium in their composition.

Minerals In Vegetables

Contrast this unbalanced emphasis on sodium to the mineral balance in vegetables. Fresh asparagus, which is a great aid to kidney health, contains almost six times as much potassium as sodium. Bananas are also rich in potassium. Nature embedded various nutrients within all plant foods that automatically balance nutrient status if and when we eat a varied diet of organically grown food, as raw or unprocessed as possible, without chemicals or genetically modified organisms.

Additives to table salt can include — depending upon country — iodine in the form of iodide salts (United States); fluoride (a protoplasmic poison) in countries where water fluoridation does not occur (France); numerous chemical anti-caking agents; iron; folic acid; and even a form of sugar (usually dextrose supposedly to stabilize iodide).

In the JAMA study I mentioned at the beginning, heart problems only seemed to be linked to excess salt when daily sodium levels reached 6,500 mg. Because what is truly important is the balancing of the four cationic electrolytes: sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium.  

But conventional medicine is trying to pigeonhole everyone’s sodium/potassium ratios into a one-size-fits-all model that over-prescribes blood pressure medications. But these medications may be doing more harm than good, by taking minerals out of the body and harming the kidneys.

Sea Salt

According to conventional wisdom, I should have been on high blood pressure meds for years. But my diet contains sea salt. Consequently, my most recent blood pressure reading was 106/60. Of course, I don’t eat processed foods or allow chemicals in my food or water and haven’t for 40 years.

The way electrolytes function in the body, sodium usually works outside cells while potassium functions inside the cells. This placement functions in the maintenance of a bodily balance of these minerals.

But when you take diuretic drugs for your blood pressure and don’t get adequate sea salt, you throw this balance out of whack. Studies like the one in JAMA show that we are long overdue for a re-evaluation of the medical hypertension paradigm.

In addition, there’s no telling how many seniors who are on hypertension meds become dehydrated. Often, in these cases, doctors provide an intravenous drip to re-supply fluid and electrolytes. Eating plenty of leafy greens and high potassium foods, plus losing some weight, could bring blood pressure into normal range.

An imbalance in sodium and potassium may also be responsible for heart arrhythmias or, perhaps, dementias linked to strong diuretics that drain the body of fluids and essential nutrients. And too many people forget to drink plenty of pure water.

To give you an idea of where sodium is in your diet, here are some examples of salt content from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference:

One cup drained snap green beans canned……… 354 mg sodium [mostly NaCl]
One cup cooked without salt fresh green beans….   1 mg [natural-occurring] sodium
One cup drained broccoli cooked without salt ……64 mg [natural-occurring] sodium
One tablespoon salted butter…………………….  82 mg sodium [mostly NaCl]
One tablespoon unsalted butter…………………     2 mg [natural-occurring] sodium
12 oz carbonated ginger ale soda………………     26 mg sodium
One cup drained carrots canned………………… 353 mg sodium [mostly NaCl]
One cup drained cooked fresh carrots…………..   90 mg [natural-occurring] sodium

In these values, you can readily see how food processing changes sodium content. To find the natural sodium and table salt contents of foods listed from A to Z on a total of 26 pages, you can study this U.S. Department of Agriculture website.

Recalls of beef seem to be an almost constant ingredient in the evening news. Last month, for instance, an outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium was discovered in freshly ground beef sold in Hannaford, a grocery store chain headquartered in Maine. Before all the beef could be recalled, 14 people in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York were sickened by the meat. Seven people required hospitalization.

Antibiotic Problem

As the head bookkeeper for a large beef boning house, I was privy to numerous incidents that allowed microorganisms to breed in meat that was sold to consumers. Adding to the problem is the fact that livestock consume antibiotics that are designed to make them put on extra weight. But an unintended side effect of these antibiotics is that they foster the growth of so-called “superbugs,” microorganisms that are resistant to antibiotics. If you become infected with a superbug, it can be deadly if no antibiotic can be found that can control the infection.

Antibiotics that are permitted for use in food animals include bacitracin, bambermycins, chlortetracycline, lasalocid, lincomycin, monensin, penicillin, salinomycin, tylosin and virginiamycin. 

One Small Step

On Jan. 4, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine issued an order prohibiting certain extra-label uses of the cephalosporin class of antimicrobial drugs (not including cephapirin) for most food-producing animals, including cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys. This was done out of concern that these antibiotics are contributing to the development of cephalosporin-resistant strains of certain bacterial pathogens. Since these drugs are used to fight pneumonia, skin and tissue infections, pelvic inflammatory disease and other conditions, it’s important to limit their use in food animals.

Steroids

A few weeks before slaughter, animals are often given veterinary steroids which are also designed to make them gain weight. This includes a drug called Finaplix (Trenbolone acetate), an androgen that beefs up a cow’s size. When residues of these substances remain in the livestock, they can be present in meat made from those animals. Consequently, meat eaters may be scarfing down steroids with each meal that contains hamburger, steak or roast beef. 

Other animals similarly receive these types of drugs. For instance, pigs get rounds of antibiotics that help them increase their weight by up to 9 percent. Avoparcin, an antibiotic, has been used to induce growth in chickens and pigs. Unfortunately, researchers have found that those animals produced more antibiotic-resistant bacteria. And since Avoparcin is similar to the drug vancomycin (a very important antibiotic in human pharmacology), microorganisms that resist this class of pharmaceuticals can produce serious consequences. In addition, goats farmed as food animals receive antibiotics to enhance their meat.

In addition to the difficulties resulting from the use of all these drugs, chicken feed may contain arsenic and copper to boost the production of poultry meat.

Fortunately, there are safer ways to increase animal size with less of a danger to human health. These include acidifiers, enzymes, oligosaccharides and directly fed probiotics. However, giving cattle oligosaccharides which are simple sugars, may increase the growth of E. coli in cows.

Natural Design

Nature designed cattle and animals with hooves to be grass-fed and browsers. Meat producers, however, have switched the diets of these animals from grass to corn and soy laced with antibiotics and other drugs. In all likelihood, that process has reprogrammed the animals’ guts to produce allergy-producing reactions within their digestive tracts. 

In addition, when these animals take in glysophate residues from GMO soy and Bacillus thuringiensis from bt-corn (a form of GMO corn), these chemicals probably interfere with the animal’s capability to produce prebiotics. Without prebiotics, natural substances that promote beneficial bacteria in the large intestine, harmful bacteria may reproduce in the animals, leading to the current spate of E.coli found in today’s beef.

The producers of our meat have excessively interfered with nature’s original design of the animals we consume.  

Taking Action

As a consumer, you can make an effort to purchase organic meat. Animals raised organically have not received hormones and antibiotics to fatten them. And organically produced milk and cheeses come from cows that are have not been injected under their tails daily with the milk-producing recombinant bovine growth hormone, rBGH. Consider consuming lamb which is relatively free of chemical residues. (This is especially true of Icelandic or New Zealand lamb.)

If you buy organic meats, you are purchasing beef that has been pasture-raised or fed organic grass. There are numerous farmers who employ sustainable agriculture methods to bring delicious and healthful meat to your dining table.

Search the Internet for “pasture raised beef brand names,” and you will find a wide range of palatable choices.

And the next time you’re in the supermarket, talk with the manager and encourage him to carry a line of grass-fed meat products. As a consumer, you possess the power of the purse. The way you spend your food dollar makes a difference in how your food is produced.

Make your shopping mantra, “What’s in the beef?” and soon the answer may be more reassuring than alarming.